sddavis63 I was completely unfamiliar with the story of Richard Kuklinski, but was attracted to the movie by the compelling true story that served as the description of the movie. In "The Iceman, we're given a look at Kuklinski's life. Played here by Michael Shannon, Kuklinksi was an ice cold (thus, along with freezing his victims, his nickname and the name of the film) contract killer who over the course of his life murdered perhaps as many as 200 people - possibly even more. The movie gives us a taste of his "career" as a serial killer, along with a look at his home life with his wife (played by Winona Ryder) and two daughters. The most interesting part of the movie (and the real story of his life) is the way he essentially compartmentalized the two parts of his life, to the extent that his family (while they may have had some suspicions that he was involved in crime) never knew that he was a contract killer. It was interesting watching that aspect of his life, interspersed with some of his experiences with various mob figures. And I'd say that the performances of both Shannon and Ryder were pretty good. But I felt that the movie itself could have been better; could have accomplished more; could have given us more of a feel for Kuklinski's life. Instead, it seemed rushed and disjointed. There wasn't enough depth given to Kuklinski, and the result was that the movie, while interesting, was also at times confusing. It was hard to make the connections from one scene to the next. Sometimes it seemed as if years had elapsed between scenes. At times, this seemed more like a series of vignettes of Kuklinski's life rather than a well developed account of how he became who he was. I certainly wanted to see it through to the end - there was never any sense that I had wasted my time by watching it. But it wasn't entirely satisfying, either.And having researched a bit about Kuklinski I wondered why they makers of the movie felt the need to take such great liberties with the "family" side of the story. I can understand why they would change the names of his wife and daughters - but a lot was off in the timing. I do't remember any mention of him having been married before. In the movie there were only two daughters - but there was also a son. And the movie strangely claimed that after he was finally arrested and sent to prison, he never saw his family again - which wasn't true. There were phone calls, and there were some visits (and in fact his wife and one daughter visited him in the prison hospital shortly before he died.) Was there a feeling that the made up story would make this a more interesting movie? It didn't. Once I found out the truth, it just seemed like a strange decision.It was a decent movie, and it inspired me to want to find out more about Kuklinski's story. So it deserves some credit for that. (6/10)

muleen Michael Shannon is tremendous in this role, he portrays this dark, cold, indifferent man, but still capable of love. The movie is slow - with dialogue that is hard to follow at times. I love a true story, though this one is tough considering how many this man killed. I like that they focus on the man, not just death and murder.

ddcharbon This wasn't a bad movie, but once I read about the life of the real Kuklinski, I felt this film was pretty much a whitewash of the man. Vronen presents Kuklinski as brutal to punks and wise guys, but essentially loving toward his wife and family (if a bit distant). In truth, K. regularly savagely beat his wife and once tried to run her over with a car. He also didn't kill just punks in pool halls and scumbag wise guys, he killed random people on the street--sometimes just to test out a method of murder that he was planning to use for a contract hire to make sure it was truly lethal. K. was savagely beaten and tortured by a father who succeeded in killing one of his older children, though never charged, during one such beating. It seems he was killing Daddy over and over again in all those murders. This is largely unexplored by Vronen's oddly two-dimensional portrait--in spite of its unjustified sympathy for the man. But now for the headline. James Franco is listed as one of the headliners in this flick, but he has only a very small part in the film. Nonetheless, he could--and should-- have given the film a very powerful moment. The scene is apparently true and K., who murdered hundreds without compunction, later felt guilty for its depth of psychological sadism. In it, Franco's character--a two bit hood, gangster hanger on--is pleading for his life, praying for it, actually, and K. tells him he will wait, delay his death, so he can see if his prayers will be answered. Franco's character, Marty, prays with a combination of desperation and hopelessness as he is confronted with his own lack of belief in an intervening God, even as he prays to stave off death for as long as he can. Shannon's K. waits impassively for time to pass, for God to fail to show up, so that he can finish the task at hand. Shannon is great in the scene--his combination of patience, cruelty, and implacable power--an embodiment, like Javier Bardem's killer in No Country for Old Men, of doom. But Franco is absolutely horrible in this scene since you don't believe for one second this guy thinks he's about to die. He phones the performance in as if it were his Oscar hosting gig. The camera is on him in a scene that should make you feel intense angst, but absolutely nothing is happening. It's not subtle, it's not intense. It's Franco sprawled out on a couch with his hands folded in prayer and squeezing his eyes tight like he was afraid someone was going to use a squirt gun on them. If you threw a rolled up newspaper at a casting line you'd hit somebody who could have done the scene better. Franco is a wildly inconsistent actor, who can be quite good, but is often awful simply because he's still acting like a spoiled adolescent even though he's now in his mid 30s. Get your act together, man; be professional. If I were Shannon, who delivers a great performance, watching Franco screw the pooch in this scene, I'd be feeling murderous too.

Adam Foidart Never mind the true story the film is based on, the performances in "The Iceman" alone are reason enough to see the film. In this crime thriller, Michael Shannon plays Richard Kuklinski, a man who's married (Winona Ryder plays his wife Deborah) and has two beautiful daughters. They are completely unaware that he is a ruthless assassin for the mob and has been for years. The film follows the man's life from the beginning of his employment to the mob in the 1960's until his death in 2006.A word ahead of time, I'm basing my review solely on the film, not having done any research on the real-life person. If there are facts in the film that have been fudged, so be it. I'm talking about Richard Kuklinski as portrayed in this movie. That said the fascinating part of this film is Kuklinski himself. You get only limited glimpses into his past, but here's what you know: he's got a brother that's in prison for life, a history of violence (and perhaps even murder) and he had an abusive father. What I liked is that even though you follow the man for a significant part of his life (minus a few jumps in time) you're still left wondering who he is, but in a good way. The reason why they call him "The Iceman" is because of the way he froze dead bodies to throw off police investigations, but that nickname could have been used to describe his personality. The man is absolutely ruthless. He will kill anyone in the blink of an eye in a way that's almost reckless. It's as if he has no sense of self-preservation or control, except for when it comes to his family. One thing I hate above all when it comes to movies about killers is when they come up with a lame explanation about what makes them able to kill. I think back at Rob Zombie's "Halloween" and how it did absolutely everything wrong because it over explained everything. Here, you get just enough to feel like you can kind of get close to the key, but not so close that you would be comfortable around him. That's the way to do it.Another element that I really enjoyed is the strange relationship that Kuklinski has with his family. Throughout the film, he insists many times that he does not care about anything aside from his wife and daughters. This man was not a serial killer because killing didn't seem to particularly excite him and it was not to get any form of attention, it's just that he was good at murder and since it didn't affect him emotionally at all, he just kept doing it. He is a strange paradox in the sense that on the one hand, he wants to have a normal life with a family and a house and in a way I feel like he would have wanted to have quiet life running or being employed at a regular place of legitimate business but he refuses to do anything but high-paying jobs that include murder. Because of his enigmatic nature and a fantastic performance from Michael Shannon, you are compelled to keep watching, even as you become disgusted by the man.This is a solid film filled with top-notch performances. Winona Ryder does well in the role of Kuklinski's wife, a mousy woman that falls in love with him and never suspects what her husband actually does for a living. Ray Liotta plays a mob boss, a role he's familiar with but is always compelling in. Probably the biggest surprise in the film is Chris Evans, whose character I don't want to talk about too much because it would be spoiling things, but the actor is nearly unrecognizable in the role. I found it very interesting, once the film was over to compare his character to Michael Shannon's, particularly towards the end. Did he think of Kuklinsi as a friend? Did he think they might be kindred spirits? Long after the film ended, the "hero" of this picture will stick with you and you'll want to discuss it with a friend. It's a little frustrating that the film feels like such a tiny glimpse in a rather infamous career (apparently there were at least a hundred murders committed by Kuklinski) but for the performances and the fascinating, if incomplete slice of life that we get here I wholeheartedly recommend you catch "The Iceman". (On Blu-ray, January 29, 2014)