Thin Ice (2011 Film)
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''Thin Ice'' (originally released as ''The Convincer'') is a 2011 American
black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
film directed by Jill Sprecher and starring
Greg Kinnear Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor and former talk show host. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' As Good as It Gets'' (1997). Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, ...
,
Alan Arkin Alan Wolf Arkin (March 26, 1934 – June 29, 2023) was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony A ...
and
Billy Crudup William Gaither Crudup (; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance in '' Jesus' Son'' (1999). He went on to star in numerous high-profile films, including ...
.


Plot summary

Wisconsin insurance salesman Mickey Prohaska is in desperate financial straits. His wife JoAnn has thrown him out of the house, and he is willing to do or say practically anything to sell anybody a policy. Mickey accompanies another insurance agent he has just met, Bob Egan, to the farm of an elderly man named Gorvy Hauer. The house is a mess and Gorvy is absent-minded, perhaps a tad senile. He does not have much money and the little he has, he seems to keep in a jar. Mickey tries to sell the old man some insurance anyway. Gorvy also has an old violin. A man named Dahl, an appraiser from Chicago who has a shop filled with musical instruments, examines the violin and says it is somewhat rare and actually worth $25,000. Complications arise when Mickey's plan to steal the instrument is discovered by a small-time ex-con named Randy Kinney, who not only will not leave Mickey alone, but turns violent and bludgeons one of Gorvy's neighbors to death. Continued inspection and research on the violin values it at forty times the original estimate. Mickey now is in possession of a million-dollar instrument, but Randy wants his share and threatens to kill Mickey if he does not get it. Mickey thinks he can still come out of this all right, until he discovers that he is in way over his head. Mickey fires Bob Egan and goes to see Gorvy, who says he called an appraiser for his violin and was told that it was just a cheap imitation. He believes his original violin was stolen, because his dog left teeth marks on it, which this fake one doesn't have. A cop arrives to take the violin to the police station. Randy takes Mickey for a drive in his car, and then asks why everyone is looking for the violin. When informed of the million dollar price tag on it, he demands they go to check out Leonard Dahl's violin store in Chicago. When they get there, they locate the phone number of another violin expert, Stoller. Mickey has $1.25 million wired to Gorvy's account since the violin was insured. He also gets Randy to burn a photo he took when he killed Richie. But in a flashback, it is revealed that Gorvy, Randy, Dahl, Richie and Bob played a trick on Mickey and scammed his insurance company. Mickey confronts Dahl who confirms it's all a scam, but Mickey can't do anything about it. Mickey starts another career selling timeshares.


Cast

*
Greg Kinnear Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor and former talk show host. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' As Good as It Gets'' (1997). Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, ...
as Mickey Prohaska *
Alan Arkin Alan Wolf Arkin (March 26, 1934 – June 29, 2023) was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony A ...
as Gorvy Hauer *
Billy Crudup William Gaither Crudup (; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance in '' Jesus' Son'' (1999). He went on to star in numerous high-profile films, including ...
as Randy Kinney *
Lea Thompson Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress, singer, dancer and director. She is best known for her roles as Lorraine Baines-McFly in the ''Back to the Future'' film trilogy (1985–1990), Beverly Switzler in ''Howard t ...
as Jo Ann Prohaska *
Bob Balaban Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer and writer. Aside from his acting career, Balaban has directed three feature films, in addition to numerous television episodes and films, and was one of the pro ...
as Leonard Dahl * David Harbour as Bob Egan *
Michelle Arthur Michelle Arthur is an English actress based in the United States. She has appeared in various television series, films, and video games. She is also known for her work with J. J. Abrams, appearing in '' Mission: Impossible III'' and episodes of ' ...
as Karla Gruenke * Mike Hagerty as Jerry *Landyn Banx as Actor *Kirsten Gregerson as Patron


Production

Filming began in February and ended in March 2010, and, though set in Wisconsin, was shot during winter in
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
; in Bloomington, St. Paul and Minnetonka in particular.


Re-editing controversy

Entitled ''The Convincer'', the initial edit of the film was screened in January 2011 at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
. Distribution rights were purchased by ATO Pictures. Both ATO and production company Werc Werk Works demanded that director/writer Jill Sprecher make sweeping changes to the film from the version shown at Sundance in order to speed the film up. The production company claimed that Sprecher "refused to be part of the process", while Sprecher stated that she was never allowed to review the distributor's notes to make any comments on them. The production company and distributor made the revisions without Sprecher's input, replacing the original composer, Alex Wurman, and the original editor, Stephen Mirrione. Sprecher was prevented from speaking to the press about the situation for legal reasons, but she had stated she is "heartbroken and devastated" and wanted to remove her name from the film, but under the terms of her contract she is not allowed to do so. The completely re-cut film was retitled ''Thin Ice''. Sprecher reportedly learned of the name through the Internet and not from the production company.


Reception


Original cut

''The Convincer'' received generally positive reviews from critics at the Sundance Film Festival. Kyle Smith of the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
'' said in his review; "Kinnear is ideal for this role" and ultimately ''The Convincer'' turns out to be an ambitiously structured and clever scam movie". Rob Nelson of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' said; "there are pitch-perfect comic notes from the whole ensemble (...) Stephen Mirrione's editing hits all the right beats, and Pope's brilliantly composed widescreen images of the Wisconsin tundra are as bright as any noir's could be".


''Thin Ice''

The re-cut ''Thin Ice'' received uniformly negative responses ("disappointing," "poorly edited," "a stinker") after screenings at B-List festivals in October 2011. ''Thin Ice'' received positive responses from critics with a "fresh" rating of 69% on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, based on 59 reviews.


Release

The film premiered locally in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Center on October 12, 2011, completely re-cut and retitled as ''Thin Ice''. Following the further festival run, the film was released theatrically in February 2012.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thin Ice 2011 films 2011 black comedy films 2010s crime comedy-drama films American black comedy films American crime comedy-drama films Films directed by Jill Sprecher Films scored by Jeff Danna Films shot in Minnesota Films set in Wisconsin 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2011 independent films English-language crime comedy-drama films English-language black comedy films English-language independent films