Convinced by his mob boss to change his career into a serial killer, Richard Kuklinski, an ordinary man works as a porn movies manager, struggles against saving his life, as he once finds himself involved in many crimes, the thing that leads him to prison, but either his wife or his daughter has any idea about his work.
A true-crime thriller directed with grit, gristle and punchy energy by Ariel Vromen, The Iceman is never less than fascinating, even if things get a little ham-fisted here and there.
Shannon gets at his character's pent-up torment as well as his efficient disconnect. When his two worlds start to converge -- on his daughter's sweet 16th birthday, no less -- you feel for him.
TheMovieReport.com
August 28, 2013
'Big bad' with a side dish of bats--t crazy is the specialty of Michael Shannon, and so scarily good he is in mining this wheelhouse that one does not dare to complain about him repeating himself.
It's as though they were in a rush to get so much killing in that they forgot all of the important elements that would make us care. As a consequence, a fascinating story and character have been flattened and turned into a hurried mess.
As the body count mounts, the movie begins to spin out of control, but Shannon and Vromen don't let it derail. Their focus keep things from melting down.
The Iceman rests on the power of one hell of a performance from Shannon, with this monster of an actor playing a monster of a man with frightening intensity.
Even the always-watchable Shannon can't give much life to Kuklinski's two-dimensional presence: he's little more than a series of murders and pained looks.
