The film opens with a dishonest insurance salesman's life quickly disintegrates during a Wisconsin winter when he teams up with a psychopath to steal a rare violin at the home of a reclusive farmer.
Thin Ice's troubled production history - the film was famously taken away from director Jill Sprecher and re-edited following its Sundance premiere - can't quite dampen what is, for the most part, an entertaining little comedy/thriller...
...the film that has made its way into theaters is no disgrace to any of the names in the credits. Still, it would be very interesting to see the movie that the Sprechers intended to make.
It builds suspense slowly and surely as things begin to come apart for Kinnear, but it eventually grows tiresome and the twist ending is still a bit hard to swallow.
At one point you're looking at the screen going, "This makes no sense!" Then after a long conclusionary explanation, you shake your head and say, "I'm still not sure that made much sense."
There's nothing like the macabre to bring intrigue to an ordinary life, and nothing like the logistics of body disposal to challenge an insurance salesman.
The characters are endearingly flawed, the set-up is mischievously appealing and the story is endlessly surprising. The humour is black, the resolution audacious.
