Thin Ice | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jill Sprecher |
Written by | Jill Sprecher Karen Sprecher |
Produced by | Mary Frances Budig Elizabeth Redleaf Christine K. Walker |
Starring | Greg Kinnear Alan Arkin |
Cinematography | Dick Pope |
Edited by | Lee Percy |
Music by | Jeff Danna |
Production company | |
Distributed by | ATO Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 114 minutes (Sundance) 93 minutes (ATO Pictures) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Thin Ice (originally released as The Convincer) is a 2011 American black comedy film directed by Jill Sprecher and starring Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin and Billy Crudup. [1]
This article needs an improved plot summary.(July 2019) |
Wisconsin insurance salesman Mickey Prohaska (Greg Kinnear) is in desperate financial straits. His wife JoAnn (Lea Thompson) 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 (David Harbour), to the farm of an elderly man named Gorvy Hauer (Alan Arkin). 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 (Bob Balaban), 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 (Billy Crudup), 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.
Filming began in February and ended in March 2010, and, though set in Wisconsin, was shot during winter in Minnesota; in Bloomington, St. Paul and Minnetonka in particular. [2] [3]
Entitled The Convincer, the initial edit of the film was screened in January 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival. 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. [4] 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. [5] [6]
The Convincer received generally positive reviews from critics at the Sundance Film Festival. Rob Nelson of Variety 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". [7]
The re-cut Thin Ice received uniformly negative responses ("disappointing," "poorly edited," "a stinker") after screenings at B-List festivals in October 2011. [4]
Thin Ice received positive responses from critics with a "fresh" rating of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 59 reviews. [8]
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.
An Unmarried Woman is a 1978 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Mazursky and starring Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, and Cliff Gorman. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress (Clayburgh).
Alan Wolf Arkin was an American actor and filmmaker. In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Emmy Awards.
Slums of Beverly Hills is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, and starring Natasha Lyonne, Alan Arkin, Marisa Tomei, David Krumholtz, Kevin Corrigan, Jessica Walter and Carl Reiner. The story follows a teenage girl (Lyonne) struggling to grow up in 1976 in a lower-middle-class nomadic Jewish family that relocates every few months.
Stuck on You is a 2003 American comedy film written and directed by the Farrelly brothers, and starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twin brothers, whose conflicting aspirations provide both conflict and humorous situations, in particular when one of them wishes to move to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actor.
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is a 2001 American drama film directed by Jill Sprecher. The screenplay by Sprecher and her sister Karen focuses on five seemingly disparate individuals in search of happiness whose paths intersect in ways that unexpectedly affect their lives.
Jakob the Liar is a 1999 American war comedy-drama film directed by Peter Kassovitz, produced by Steven Haft, Marsha Garces Williams and written by Kassovitz and Didier Decoin. The film is based on the book of the same name by Jurek Becker. The film stars Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Bob Balaban. The film is set in 1944 in a ghetto in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust and tells the story of a Polish-Jewish shopkeeper named Jakob Heym who attempts to raise the morale inside the ghetto by sharing encouraging rumors that he claims he has heard on a radio. It is a remake of the 1975 East German-Czechoslovak film Jakob der Lügner.
Dedication is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Justin Theroux, written by David Bromberg, and stars Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It was produced by Plum Pictures.
Jill Ann Sprecher is an American film director, producer, and writer. Sprecher collaborates on her film projects with her sister, Karen Sprecher, who writes. She is known for her films Clockwatchers and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing and her contributions to Big Love on HBO. Her films feature stories about realistic human experiences and the struggles of women.
Without Limits is a 1998 American biographical sports film. It is written and directed by Robert Towne and follows the relationship between record-breaking distance runner Steve Prefontaine and his coach Bill Bowerman, who later co-founded Nike, Inc. Billy Crudup plays Prefontaine and Donald Sutherland plays Bowerman. It also stars Monica Potter, Jeremy Sisto, Judith Ivey, Matthew Lillard and William Mapother.
Trust the Man is a 2005 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Bart Freundlich. The film is set in New York and centers around two couples as they deal with relationship issues such as intimacy and commitment.
Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American tragicomedy road film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from a screenplay written by Michael Arndt. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, all of whom play members of a dysfunctional family taking the youngest (Breslin) to compete in a child beauty pageant. It was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million. Filming began on June 6, 2005, and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California.
Nicholas Jarecki is an American film director, producer, and writer best known for his 2012 feature film Arbitrage.
Pretty Bird is a 2008 American comedy film. It competed in the Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was released on DVD in the United States on June 29, 2010.
World Traveler is a 2001 Canadian-American drama film written and directed by Bart Freundlich, and starring Billy Crudup and Julianne Moore. It was screened at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival.
A Smile Like Yours is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Keith Samples and starring Greg Kinnear and Lauren Holly. The film centers on a couple as they try to conceive a child. The film was produced by Rysher Entertainment and released by Paramount Pictures. The title song was performed by Natalie Cole.
Werc Werk Works is an independent film production and finance company founded by Elizabeth Redleaf and Independent Spirit Award-nominated producer Christine Kunewa Walker. The company plans to make three to four films per year in the sub-$5 million range.
Excision is a 2012 American psychological horror film written and directed by Richard Bates Jr., and starring AnnaLynne McCord, Traci Lords, Ariel Winter, Roger Bart, Jeremy Sumpter, Malcolm McDowell, Matthew Gray Gubler, Marlee Matlin, Ray Wise, and John Waters. The film is a feature-length adaptation of the 2008 short film of the same name. Excision premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Excision played in the category of Park City at Midnight.
Glass Chin is a 2014 American crime drama film written and directed by Noah Buschel, starring Corey Stoll, Billy Crudup, Marin Ireland, Yul Vazquez and Kelly Lynch. It premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
The Stanford Prison Experiment is a 2015 American docudrama thriller film directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, written by Tim Talbott, and starring Billy Crudup, Michael Angarano, Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Thirlby, and Nelsan Ellis. The plot concerns the 1971 Stanford prison experiment, conducted at Stanford University under the supervision of psychology professor Philip Zimbardo, in which students played the role of either a prisoner or correctional officer.
After the Wedding is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Bart Freundlich. It is a remake of the Danish-Swedish 2006 film of the same name by Susanne Bier. It stars Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup, and Abby Quinn.