Imagine, Goodfellas meets Taxi Driver meets Zodiac. Now, that would make an excellent film. Well, The Iceman is that film. This film is for people who appreciate good acting because it is filled with great performances, which is the film’s biggest asset. Michael Shannon stars as Richard Kuklinski (The Iceman), an infamous hitman known for killing over 250 plus people for the mob. The Iceman also has strong performances from Ray Liotta, Chris Evans, and Winona Ryder. If you are not a fan of James Franco, well spoiler alert, he gets killed in the movie so there may be some incentive for you to see the film.

The logline states:

“Nothing is more important than his family, which is why they can never know his homicidal secrets.”

Although this film does not do a good job of making you care about the main protagonist, it does make you really question his character of why killing people is so natural to him. The Iceman kills people like he is putting butter on toast, with no hesitation. Michael Shannon’s portrayal of Richard Kuklinski is not psychotic, it is chilling and mysterious; just what you would expect of a hitman, nicknamed The Iceman. This makes the viewer try to figure out why he is like that and how he can easily hide that from his family. I don’t know how I would personally lie to my family of what I did for a living or how I could go another day knowing that the only thing that I was good at was killing other people for money.  Characters like The Iceman completely bewilder me because of their introverted nature. This film spans his career of being a hitman for over 35 years, making it an incredible story. Just to see The Iceman slowly melt himself down, exposing himself slowly throughout that period is quite fascinating to know because he only opens up to the audience for as much as he knows how to. This is a character study that fascinates many actors because the character arch of Richard Kuklinski is on fire.