2011 Directed by Jill Sprecher
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.
Greg Kinnear Alan Arkin Billy Crudup David Harbour Michelle Arthur Peter Thoemke James Michael Detmar Lea Thompson Bob Balaban John Paul Gamoke Jennifer Edwards Scott Crouch Peter Moore Michelle Hutchison Michael Paul Levin Kathryn Lawrey Joe Minjares Alan Johnson Alec George Tony Papenfuss Sue Scott Terry Hempleman Chris Carlson John Elsen Gary Groomes Isabell O'Connor Mike Hagerty Wayne Morton Peggy O'Connell Show All…
Elizabeth Redleaf Christine K. Walker Andrew Peterson Kelly Gilpatrick Mark Steele Mary Frances Budig Ken Bailey
The Convincer, Timo bajo cero, Тонкий лед
USA
Sundance Film Festival
USAR
Germany12
Germany
USA
I sometimes check films out on other people's Amazon accounts when I'm housesitting. I sort the films in my watchlist by what's available. To prioritize, I then check to see if there are any other avenues I can watch the film so I can maximize my selections. And my library had this on DVD, so I checked it out that way.
There might be a reason I had never heard of this film. It really stunk. Despite liking Greg Kinnear as an actor, his main character was really unsympathetic and really, horrible. The whole thing was dumb and not very funny, despite seeing some familiar faces in it. Another draw was that a woman directed this: Jill Sprecher. Both films I've seen from her were better (Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Clockwatchers).
All in all, I would have avoided completely had I known.
An indie version of Fargo, well actually that was an indie film. More like a Fargo wannabe, but with virtually no standout characters or performances and the story was so staid and stagnant, it failed to leap in front of me. I'm not usually into Coen Brothers- type movies, but I gave this one a shot. Sadly, it just didn't pay-off. There were talks of Thin Ice being butchered by studio execs after it was well received at Sundance, and so what we have is the finished product that feels utterly lacking. Though it is billed as a Black comedy, there are little to no laughs found. But for one twist I didn't see coming, I was virtually bored as…
There's a reason you haven't heard of Thin Ice, a caper movie starring two incredibly likeable actors, one an Oscar winner and the other an Oscar nominee, the reason is that this film is one of the very worst instances of the matchstick man conceit.
There's a back story which may go some way to explaining the horrifically obvious (and therefore treating the audience as if they're idiots) plot twists, the film played well at Sundance, the studio that purchased it hacked it up and the director asked for their name to be removed which was in turn denied; whether this is a reason or an excuse I can not say but it's such a stinker that I don't care…
Thin Ice went through a pretty rough time in order to finally get to the big screen. I was going to call it Jill Sprecher's Thin Ice, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate. Sprecher wrote the film, along with Karen Sprecher, and titled it The Convincer. She wrote it, shot it with a great cast including Greg Kinnear, Billy Crudup and Alan Arkin, and did all of her fine work to get it to Sundance. Then the studio grabbed the film, cut off half an hour of it while also changing major plot details of it, cutting out entire characters and apparently even doing reshoots. Sprecher went as far as trying to get her name removed from the film, but…
A strange one this. It really is interesting and keeps you entertained as the story progresses. Kinnear is always good value, as is Arkin in his limited screentime, and Billy Crudup is phenomonal as the highly strung security expert with a dark side.
There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments, as well as some quite dark twists and turns. But what's the usual problem with comedy, crime thrillers and black comedies such as these? Keeping things believable and rational, and that's where this film unfortunately fails.
As the plot continues and the story begins to unravel and reveal the direction it is taking, the quality unfortunately begins to decline. The decision to introduce a sudden on-set of narration and…
Jill Sprecher, one of our most talented auteurs, has only managed to ever get 3 movies made. This one, at a decade old the most recent, was taken from her, edited to ribbons and released under an incorrect title. Somehow, it still manages to be quite watchable. Hollywood sucks.
I like these types of "everything can go wrong" neo-noir dark comedies, typically documenting someone trying to cover-up a crime. But there was something missing in the energy of this one. The moment where shit hits the fan feels both incongruous with what became before and after, because I never felt the tension placed on Greg Kinnear's character. I think part of that is he is unlikable by design, playing the smarmy, manic asshole he's so good at. So I wasn’t invested in whether he gets away with the unevenly paced scheme.
The supporting cast is all pretty great, including Alan Arkin as a crotchety eccentric, Billy Crudup as a working joe with a hint of danger, David Harbour as…
Довольно средняя криминальная комедия про аферу с дорогой скрипкой, в которую поневоле угодил хитрожопый и жадный страховой агент. Думал, что это "Фарго"-лайт из-за снежных пейзажей и трупа, а оказалось скорее уцененным вариантом "Блефа", а то и The Art of Steal с Куртом Расселлом. В общем, типичный фильм с Греггом Кинниром в главной роли, неплохой, но и не особо хороший.
PS. Дэвид Харбор бегает тут по снегам за 11 лет до роли кровожадного Санты Клауса.
(director's cut)
I've rarely seen a movie tank itself as thoroughly in the home stretch as this does, where everything I liked about it up to that point is revealed to be a misdirect for a stupid, overly elaborate twist. For awhile it's a perfectly sturdy Fargo-a-like, distinguished by a terrifically funny Billy Crudup performance as a psychopath defined not by his evil but his irritation at people fucking things up for him. But it takes such a hard, unsatisfying turn into a Mamet-lite con-game movie that none of what comes before matters, it's just set-up for a cheap (but also needlessly convoluted) carnival trick.
I'm probably overrating this because of my love for the genre, as well as the fact that I know this film was hacked to pieces by the studio. I bet the original cut was a whole lot better and made a lot more sense, but what's left here is still fairly good. There are some solid comedic moments and the cast is very strong. Greg Kinnear continues to impress me and he's great again here. Billy Crudup is also great, while Alan Arkin does what he always does and makes the film better solely just by being there. It's well-paced, well-acted, and well-shot, but the story jumps around a bit too much, and not everything makes sense, although I can let those issues slide as that was the fault of the studio, not the director.
