"As Wichita falls... so falls Wichita Falls"

Over the weekend, I was unable to watch very many movies as I had somewhere in the range of 10,000 episodes of Ramsey related programming to go through. But, one of the movies I was able to watch and clear off DVR was The Ice Harvest. This neo-noir film was directed by Harold Ramis (yes, Egon from Ghostbusters) and is set in Wichita, Kansas.

Much like Fargo, the film is Dark...in fact much darker than Fargo in terms of over-all aesthetic but very similar in vibe.

Taking place over the course of one night and containing a frigid, claustrophobic air that makes it almost hard to watch, the film's star, John Cusack, of whom I am a big fan, brings a human side to the story and lets you click with what's going on. Billy Bob Thornton plays an asshole, (go figure) that you never really hate, despite what you know he was capable of and Connie Nelson does just fine as the hardly seen damsel in distress/problem causer.

But the only character who held a candle to Cusack was Oliver Platt, who has yet to disappoint me. His delivery is impeccable as is his un-challenged acting chops.

Over-all, I loved the movie which is based on the novel by Scott Phillips, and I recommend this to anyone who maybe will come across it on DVD or see it on a movie channel. For fans of Noir Cinema and character-actor John Cusack.

By the way...the phrase "As Wichita falls... so falls Wichita Falls" appears numerous times in the film but not in the novel. It is also maybe not-so-coincidentally the sort-of title of a Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays CD called As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls.

(((03)))