Try This With 'Nadine' (1987)

(Mild SPOILERS)

So I see some folks here didn't much like "The Ice Harvest."

I did. But for an odd reason.

Because I liked "Nadine," made in 1987.

I see this as rather a matched pair of complimentary "small town organized crime noir black comedies," both courtesy of a somewhat important film director and writer name of Robert Benton.

Benton co-wrote the classic "Bonnie and Clyde" and then, years later, won the Oscar for writing and directing "Kramer vs. Kramer."

His heart was rather in crime, though. From "Bonnie and Clyde" to "There Was a Crooked Man" to "The Late Show" (Art Carney as a tough old private eye with oddball Lily Tomlin helping him), Benton had a taste for tales about lowdown characters in tough situations, with double-crosses and murder necessary to "sort things out".

Benton wrote and directed "Nadine," which was a little gem about Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger -- as a recently split married couple who still love each other, except Bridges is broke all the time -- running afoul of a local gangster in their small Texas town. The gangster was played by the marvelously charismatic Rip Torn, and his "gang," while small (two guys, who worked as local pro wrestlers when not as henchmen), was legitimately murderous. Benton kept things small, funny, but deadly in "Nadine," and some greedy characters killed or got killed along the way.

Rebert Benton didn't direct "The Ice Harvest" (the relatively major Harold Ramis did), but he wrote it, and if you know "Nadine," you get the same vibe here. Rather than a baking hot Texas town circa 1955, you've got a freezing cold and rainy Wichita Kansas, circa today -- but you've got the same mix of crime, humor, sex, and deadly serious murder.

"The Ice Harvest" stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton, two exceptionally interesting and entertaining actors who, unfortunately, can't seem to buy a box office hit nowadays. I guess they're each too "special," Cusack, with his brooding, inner-directed, Sad Sack grumpiness; Thornton with his now-trademark sarcasm and over-honest nastiness (see "Bad Santa," "The Bad News Bears," this) -- general audiences just don't dig 'em. I guess they're not nice enough.

Cusack and Thornton worked together before, but I just didn't want to see a movie about "troubled air traffic controllers." No way. They make a great team here -- but Thornton isn't really in the movie that much. It's almost an extended cameo.

Like "Nadine," "The Ice Harvest" posits that even the smallest and most anoymous of American cities will provide some crooks, somewhere, with opportunity. Business abhors a vacuum, and here most of the crime stems from strip clubs and porno. (Or as the mob boss says, "naked ladies and hand jobs.") There's a big boss (beefy Randy Quaid rather than stylish Rip Torn), there's a femme fatale (Connie Nielsen, sexily approaching Lauren Bacall territory), there's a big henchman (the great, and big, Mike Starr)...

...and there's a nice undercurrent to "The Ice Harvest" that even goes beyond "Nadine." Simply put, "The Ice Harvest" looks at the burdens and failures of American business and family life. Oliver Platt pretty well steals the movie from Cusack and Thornton (and has a much bigger role THAN Thornton) as the fat, prosperous, drunk and desperately unhappy local businessman who took Cusack's gorgeous Ice Queen Wife (every town has a Homecoming Queen) and kids off Cusack's hands. Funny thing: Cusack doesnt much mind (HE knows the wife and her family are awful to live with.) And Platt gets a very poignant line: "I can't do my life."

"The Ice Harvest" is a funny, melancholy little noir, and a good one, I think. The relationship between Cusack and Thornton ends up most ambiguously. , As boss Quaid notes, Cusack doesn't have the guts, and Thornton doesn't have the brains, for the skim job they pull off against the local mob -- but TOGETHER, they have both. And then we get to watch them carefully: will Thornton hold up his end of the partnership, or kill Cusack? Will Cusack be too nice to save himself? Or is he just being devious? The answers will out.

If you haven't seen "The Ice Harvest" yet, rent "Nadine" too and watch them as a double bill. More satisfaction that way.

I've posted elsewhere here on Thornton's best line in the movie. It's great. He's great.

And I like an exchange near the end:

Other guy: You're the nicest guy I know.

Cusack: That's too bad. I'm sorry to hear that.