The Iceman (2012)

Mr. Freezy: Who's the girl?
Kuklinski: I don't know
Mr. Freezy: And you let her go?
Kuklinski: I don't kill women or children
Mr. Freezy: It'll kill your reputation
Kuklinski: What are you doing?
Mr. Freezy: She saw my face....
[Kuklinski pointing a gun at Freezy]
Mr. Freezy: What the fuck are you doing?
Kuklinski: Gotta keep my reputation.

Based on a true story, The Iceman depicts the life of Richard Kuklinski, a guy who started out as a porn film lab operator to become one of the most notorious contract killers in the history of U.S. The story takes us back to 1964 when we see a tongue-tied Richard (Michael Shannon) trying to woo Deborah (Winona Ryder) in a coffee shop in New Jersey city. Even though he has no charm when it comes to women, Deb is taken with his cool demeanor which she probably mistakes for signs of a nice guy.  We see his first victim at a snooker bar when the guy playing opposite him tries to insult Deb and ends up with a slit throat in his own car.

A year later, they are married when Richard's boss Roy (Ray Liotta) insists that he join him as a contract killer and to watch his back all the time. When tested by his boss to see whether he has it in him, Richard shows no hesitation in killing a street bum with three shots to his chest to end the bum's "misery". This starts out a career in contract killing that would go on till 1986 by when he would have killed over 100 men as per his recollections. What was surprising is the fact that he was a devoted husband and father to two daughters who had absolutely no idea what he did for a living. His wife thought till the end he was working in the foreign exchange markets where he used to make a "killing" to provide his family a very luxurious living.

There are quite a few documentaries out there and a few interviews with Kuklinski that provide more details of his killings and the role his father had in turning him into such a cold, ruthless killer. In one of the interviews he mentions about a time when he gave one of his victims half an hour to pray to God to come down and change the circumstances. When God seemed to be busy, he shot the man. Michael Shannon is superb in the lead role as he plays it to perfection. However, if we watch the documentaries, Richard Kuklinski appears to be more self-aggrandizing as he clearly loves to talk about the killings and also smiles once in a while, unlike what we see in the movie. Ray Liotta as a mob boss once again looks quite threatening when he does his talking with his menacing eyes.  The movie reminded me of another mafia movie, Kill The Irishman, only that the protagonist in that one seemed more human. Richard, on the contrary, deserved his reputation of being the most dangerous man ever as all one had to do to meet his death was to annoy the Iceman. And the Iceman nickname was not earned from his cold demeanor, but for the fact that he used to deep-freeze his victims' bodies for months before disposing them. Beat that.

Rating: 7/10