''The Iceman'' is a 2012 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

loosely based on

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

Richard Kuklinski Richard Leonard Kuklinski (; April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006), also known as The Iceman, was an American criminal and convicted murderer. Kuklinski was engaged in criminal activities for most of his adult life; he ran a burglary ring and dist ...

. Released in 2012 at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

, the film was directed by

Ariel Vromen Ariel Vromen ( he, אריאל ורומן; born February 14, 1973) is an Israeli film director and screenwriter best known for directing the 2012 American film '' The Iceman''. Life and career Vromen grew up in the Ramat Aviv neighbourhood of T ...

, and stars

Michael Shannon Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor, producer, musician, and theater director. He is an off beat actor known for his on-screen versatility, performing in both comedies and dramas. He became known for his frequent ...

as Kuklinski,

Winona Ryder Winona Laura Horowitz (born October 29, 1971), professionally known as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Originally playing quirky roles, she rose to prominence for her more diverse performances in various genres in the 1990s. She has recei ...

, Chris Evans, and

Ray Liotta Raymond Allen Liotta (; December 18, 1954 – May 26, 2022) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Shoeless Joe Jackson in ''Field of Dreams'' (1989) and Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's ''Goodfellas'' (1990). He was a Primeti ...

. The movie was presented at Venice film festival. Also showed at the 2012

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado during Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 49th edition took place on September 2 -6, 2022. History First held on 30 August 1974, th ...

and the

2012 Toronto International Film Festival The 37th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 6 and September 16, 2012. TIFF announced the films that were accepted on August 21, 2012. On its 37th edition the TIFF included a 2 ...

before receiving a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in cinemas in the United States on May 3, 2013. It expanded into more cinemas in the USA on May 17. It was released to DVD on September 3.

Plot

When a man insults

's fiancée during a game of pool, he follows the man to his car and murders him by slashing his throat. Kuklinski marries Deborah in 1964 and the couple have two daughters. Kuklinski presents himself to everyone as a normal working man, but he has a dark, violent side that he hides. As a boy, he and his younger brother were the subject of brutal beatings from their immigrant

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

father, shaping the boys into emotionally disturbed, sadistic young men. His brother is serving a life sentence in prison for raping and murdering a 12-year old girl. Kuklinski works dubbing pornographic films, but tells his wife he dubs cartoons. The mob-backed company he works for is shut down by Roy DeMeo, a powerful New York City gangster. DeMeo tests Kuklinski by having him kill a homeless man, then hires him as an enforcer and contract killer. In 1975, Kuklinski moves his family into a nice suburban home and starts telling people he works at a

currency trading The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all aspec ...

company. He is ordered to kill a man who betrayed DeMeo, but finds a teenage girl in the closet afterwards. Freezy, a freelance hitman also hired by DeMeo, almost kills her, but is stopped by Kuklinski. DeMeo, already involved in a dispute with the

Cali Cartel The Cali Cartel ( es, Cartel de Cali) was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca. Its founders were the brothers Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela. They broke away fr ...

, is furious when he learns what happened and decommissions Kuklinski indefinitely. Needing money, he makes a deal with Freezy to carry out his murder contracts for him in return for half the bounties. Kuklinski's home life is beginning to unravel. He starts becoming incapable of hiding his inner rage and shows bursts of anger towards his wife and strangers. DeMeo's boss Leo Merks hires Freezy to kill one of DeMeo's associates, which Kuklinski does by poisoning him with

cyanide Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms. In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...

. DeMeo finds out about the hits Kuklinski has been doing behind his back and threatens to kill his family if they ever cross paths again. Kuklinski then goes to Leo Merks to collect the bounty money, but Leo is furious that the job was not untraceable. He refuses to pay anything, prompting Kuklinski to shoot him dead. Kuklinski's daughter is hospitalized after a

hit-and-run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...

by DeMeo. Both Kuklinski and Freezy have to go on the run to escape DeMeo, but Kuklinski kills Freezy for suggesting that they kill each other's families to prevent them from talking to the police and then claiming that he already knows where Kuklinski lives (although Kuklinski is certain that he has never mentioned his address to Freezy). Following an undercover sting operation, Kuklinski is arrested in 1986. Neither his wife nor his daughters had ever suspected him of being a killer. Kuklinski admits to having committed over 100 murders, both for personal reasons and for profit, in his 22-year career. After being sentenced to two life terms in prison, he never sees his wife and daughters again. As the movie ends, Kuklinski's only regret is hurting his family through the crimes he committed. In 2006, he dies in a prison hospital, from a rare inflammatory disease; the film's closing

intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

s indicate that foul play was suspected in his death as he was scheduled to testify at the trial of a

Gambino family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...

underboss.

Cast

Newman, Nick (2011-01-21)
"Shannon, Franco and Del Toro to Star in ‘The Iceman’"
. ''TheFilmStage.com''. Retrieved 2011-07-06. *

as Deborah Kuklinski (based on Barbara Kuklinski) * Chris Evans as Robert "Mr. Freezy" ProngeFleming, Mike (2011-11-21)
"Chris Evans Replacing James Franco In 'The Iceman'"
"Deadline.com". Retrieved 2011-11-21. (based on Robert "Mister Softee" Prongay) *

as Roy DeMeo *

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...

as Marty Freeman *

David Schwimmer David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom '' Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Prime ...

as Josh Rosenthal (based on Chris Rosenberg) *

Stephen Dorff Stephen Hartley Dorff Jr. (born July 29, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Roland West in the third season of HBO's crime drama anthology series ''True Detective'', PK in '' The Power of One'', Stuart Sutcliffe in ''Backbe ...

as Joseph Kuklinski *

Erin Cummings Erin Lynn Cummings is an American actress and online film pundit. She has appeared in the television series, ''Charmed'', ''Dante's Cove'', ''The Bold and the Beautiful'', ''Cold Case'', ''Dollhouse'', '' Spartacus: Blood and Sand'', and ''Detr ...

as Ellen *

Robert Davi Robert John Davi (born 1953) is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing heavy Jake Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985), ...

as Leo Merks (based on Anthony Gaggi) *

Weronika Rosati Weronika Anna Rosati (; born 9 January 1984) is a Polish actress. She made her acting debut in 2000, and first gained recognition playing Ania in the Polish soap opera ''M jak miłość'' (2002–2005, 2018–2020). She appeared in several othe ...

as Livi *

John Ventimiglia John Ventimiglia (, ) is an American actor. He portrayed Artie Bucco in the HBO television series ''The Sopranos'' and had a recurring role as Dino Arbogast, an Organized Crime Control Bureau Chief for the NYPD, on the American police procedur ...

as Mickey Scicoli *

Christa Campbell Christa Campbell (born December 7, 1972) is an American actress and producer. Campbell is best known for her roles in '' 2001 Maniacs'', '' Mozart and the Whale'', '' Lonely Hearts'', ''The Wicker Man'', ''Cleaner'', ''Day of the Dead'', '' L ...

as Adele *

McKaley Miller McKaley Nicole Miller (born May 14, 1996) is an American actress. She is best known for her recurring teenager roles as Dana Monohan on the ABC series ''The Gates'' in 2010 and as Rose Hattenbarger on The CW series ''Hart of Dixie'' from 2011 t ...

as Anabel Kuklinski * Danny A. Abeckaser as Dino Lapron *

Ryan O'Nan Ryan O'Nan (born March 25, 1982) is an American actor, writer, and director, best known for his role as King George in '' Queen of the South''. Career In 2009, O'Nan had a recurring role on the crime drama series ''The Unusuals''.Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

. Shannon's portrayal of Kuklinski includes the authentic voice Kuklinski had, as evidenced by his interviews with HBO in their 1993 documentary ''Conversations with a Killer''.

Release

RobertDaviStephenDorffMichaelShannonTIFFSept2012

''The Iceman'' screened out of competition at the

69th Venice International Film Festival The 69th annual Venice International Film Festival, organized by Venice Biennale, took place at Venice Lido from 29 August to 8 September 2012. The festival opened with the Indian director Mira Nair's ''The Reluctant Fundamentalist'', and clos ...

in August 2012. The film screened at the

in September that year. It was released in the United States on May 3, 2013. The film made $4.5 million during its theatrical run.

Critical reception

''The Iceman'' has an approval rating of 66% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, with an average score of 6.20/10 based on 128 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "While it deserved stronger direction and a more fully realized script, Michael Shannon's riveting performance in the title role is more than enough to make ''The Iceman'' recommended viewing." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 60 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Stephen Holden of ''The New York Times'' wrote that while the film is not "a great crime movie...it is an indelible film that clinches Mr. Shannon's status as a major screen actor." Tomas Hachard of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' gave the film 1.5 out of 4 stars. Meanwhile, Ben Kenigsberg of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the film a C+ rating. David Rooney of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' noted that "the film's chief asset is without question its performances." Peter Bradshaw of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, describing it as "''

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

'' meets ''

Goodfellas ''Goodfellas'' (stylized ''GoodFellas'') is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book '' Wis ...

''". ''

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'' also gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Michael Phillips of ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' gave it 3 out of 4 stars, commenting that the film is "sleek, purposeful and extremely well acted". Oliver Lyttelton gave the film a C rating. Chris Nashawaty of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' gave the film a B− rating. Betsy Sharkey of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' criticized the film: "The great failing of ''The Iceman'' is not in giving us a monster, but in not making us care", she wrote. Jason Gorber of ''

Twitch Film Screen Anarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...

'' wrote: "Like a stiff mixed drink that doesn't live up to the quality of its ingredients, ''The Iceman'' proves to be an unpalatable, underwhelming crime drama."

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Iceman, The 2012 films 2012 biographical drama films 2012 crime drama films 2012 crime thriller films 2010s serial killer films 2012 thriller drama films American biographical drama films American crime drama films American crime thriller films American independent films American serial killer films American thriller drama films American gangster films Biographical films about gangsters Biographical films about contract killers Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in fiction Drama films based on actual events Films based on American novels Films based on organized crime novels Films directed by Ariel Vromen Films set in New Jersey Films set in New York (state) Films set in 1964 Films set in 1975 Films set in 1986 Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in Louisiana Films shot in New York (state) Films shot in New York City Thriller films based on actual events 2012 independent films 2010s English-language films Films produced by Avi Lerner 2010s American films