On Frozen Ground Review
Con-Air buddies Nicholas Cage and John Cusack reunite for this true story based drama about a serial killer who was finally tracked down and caught in the early 80’s.
Cussack – still seeking out the bad boy roles these days takes on a fairly muted character of Robert Hansen – A seemingly mild-mannered businessman with a very dark side. Our introduction though to the character is economical storytelling at its most signposted. We follow Hansen past a slew of characters as he goes about his business and on the nose lines of dialogue are dropped for our benefit so the film-makers don’t have to trouble us too much with Hansen’s normal day to day life after that. Instead we get various scenes of him out on the prowl, or as he torments his victims.
Cage on the other hand goes all glum (to the point of ineffectual) as the law enforcer in pursuit. Never happy with any middle ground, Cage either goes wildly over the top or, as in this case, he becomes the most bummed out man on Earth.
It isn’t helped that he has to shepherd one of the most annoying former victim’s, Cindy (Vanessa Hudgens). The main issue with her is finding any shred of connection with the victim she is supposed to be, despite the scripts insistence of portraying her as unlikeable and damaged beyond repair. Her role is perhaps closer to real life than we may fancy – considering how often she throws sympathy back in the face of anyone willing to help her, as well as the many times she does a runner. Battered and scarred by life she for the most part is as poisonous to the viewers as perhaps the predators that seek her out.
The film then takes fast dive towards the end and wraps up fairly quickly. A mercy perhaps on what has been a slow and repetitive haul, but also robbing the two male leads of any decent screen time together. The only value then to find is perhaps in some of the procedural routines that the enforcers employ to get their man.
Steven Hurst