Ice Men (2004) User Reviews

The Big Chill

[Lechuguilla · 16 December 2007]

Four twenty-something guys, all of whom were childhood friends, get together at a cabin in the snowy backwoods of Ontario for some weekend hunting, poker playing, and general male bonding. The film calls to mind "The Big Chill" (1983), with its ensemble cast, about the weekend reunion of old friends.

In "Ice Men", one of the four guys is Vaughn (Martin Cummins), who owns the cabin. He is outraged when his estranged, older brother, Trevor (Ian Tracey), shows up unexpectedly, crawling around under the house, of all things. Trevor's arrival changes the group dynamics, and propels the plot toward expressions of anger and resentment, suitable as a basis for requisite story tension and conflict. But there's too much angst, and the story descends into a kind of male bonding soap opera.

The script is very talky. Yet, we actually learn relatively little about the five guys. Vaughn is self-centered, and belligerent toward the others. I didn't like him at all. Questions about these guys, and their back-stories, are left largely unresolved. And it's up to viewers to interpret character arcs and the story's overall message.

The film's ensemble acting is generally acceptable. Color cinematography is fine, especially interior lighting. Several flashbacks show the guys as childhood friends. The plot's pace is slow, with very long camera "takes". Background music is haunting and low-key.

Maybe the point of the film is to show how adult men interact with each other when they're alone. Or maybe the point is to show the effect of time, as childhood friends mature into adults. But I'm really not sure. The story's theme is ambiguous. And the story itself, like the ice they play hockey on, is rather thin.

"Ice Men" may be of some interest to viewers interested in cinematic character studies. But somehow, I just couldn't get interested in these guys and all their ... issues.

Don't waste your video $

[airdrieguy · 1/10 · 5 September 2010]

What was this about????? Too many characters running in too many different directions to follow and all held together with a rather weak premise. Lots of hints of drama but nothing developed.

Most of these guys cannot act and most likely were selected because they would act in this film.

I had no idea who the direction Thom what his name is is as I have never watched Queer As Folk but knew the film was in trouble when it was revealed he also wrote it and produced it (I do believe). A man is 30+ years old and never had a girlfriend and no one suspects he's gay? Who when he finally scores needs to discuss it with his trick?? Please. And anal retentive brother versus the drifter brother? Another cliché. The closeted gym bunny?!

Did anyone notice Brian brings an assortment of liquours but they only drink Glenfiddich and beer? Perhaps if I had been drinking Glenfiddich and beer I might have enjoyed this.

Flawed and claustrophobic, but ultimately moving

[thesnowleopard · 9/10 · 31 December 2005]

Following his domineering father's death, uptight yuppie Vaughn (Martin Cummins) buys the family cabin from his mother. One weekend, he invites his three childhood friends up to the cabin for his best friend, Bryan's (David Hewlett), birthday. The four boys have grown into troubled men. Vaughn is angry and abusive to his friends after being dumped by his girlfriend, Renee (a less than compelling Brandy Ledford). Copying his father, he tries to play alpha dog of his little pack. Birthday boy Bryan (David Hewlett) is a whiny alcoholic who cheats on both his wife and Vaughn. Jon (Greg Spottiswood), a talented (and gay) photographer, is desperate to win a rent-paying contract from Vaughn. Self-involved fitness instructor Steve (astonishingly buff James Thomas), is so deep in the closet that he's determined to wed his clingy girlfriend simply because his friends think she's hot. His subsequent fling with Jon, needless to say, complicates his life considerably.

Into this volatile toxic waste spill drives Trevor (Ian Tracey), Vaughn's colorful gambler brother, whom Steve has furtively invited up for the weekend. Trevor's attempts to rebuild burned bridges are complicated by Vaughn's self-righteous rage and denial about their abusive father and Trevor's suicidal desperation over a thirty-thousand-dollar gambling debt. None of this stops Trevor from effortlessly taking away the lead dog position from his baby brother and playing matchmaker/confidant to Jon and Steve, even as he becomes the lightning rod for the four younger men's anger and disappointment over their failed lives. Unbeknownst to the others, the ice-covered lake in front of the cabin where their father drowned himself seems to be calling Trevor home. Trevor's eventual breakdown under the pressure of being the designated scapegoat forces each of the others to face up to their own problems in a dramatic climax.

The characters (with one crucial exception) don't get enough time to establish their depth before the final scene, though the actors were clearly game for what looked like a very rough shoot (particularly for Tracey and Cummins). Cummins shows Vaughn's pain and confusion well with minimal dialogue when Vaughn finally confronts his demons in the shape of his father's antler-decked throne. Unfortunately, the script forces him to either pout or yell for most of the movie, aside from one embarrassing and self-flagellating scene with his ex and the strong conclusion. Similarly, Thomas gets no chance to establish Steve's reasons for the homophobia and self-hatred that make him reject potential soulmate Jon until the last scene. Nor do we ever find out why he is so protective of Trevor, despite Trevor's sardonic insistence on taking Jon's side. And Hewlett gives Bryan no depth whatsoever. But then, I've never got the attraction of Hewlett. His fans may feel differently. There's certainly a lot of him in this, but I felt Bryan was the only character who didn't grow at all.

Spottiswood fares better. In the wake of Steve's rejection, Jon struggles to get the others to accept his sexual orientation (not to mention his unconventional occupation) and vents to the sympathetic Trevor. Spottiswood does a good job of showing Jon as sensitive, but not weak. He more than holds his own in the hockey game that Trevor organizes and confronts Vaughn, Steve and Bryan at one point about their latent homophobia. He's outnumbered, but he's no wuss.

Finally, Tracey shines as Trevor. His complex, subversive performance powers the story to its dark conclusion, raising uncomfortable questions about how we blame child abuse victims for their scars while letting their abusers off the hook, especially if both are men. Tracey establishes Trevor as a solitary, troubled soul, burdened by his family-designated role as the Bad Seed. Trevor has fielded free-floating blame from his abusive environment all of his life. It reaches lethal levels at the end when he finally confronts his brother about their failed relationship, a loaded gun to his own head. He chain-smokes his way through the organizing of a string of good deeds for the others--ice-fishing on the lake, creating a hockey rink for the men to play on, engineering a poker game, starting up the hot tub that his brother begrudges his buddies and retrieving and setting up a projector for a bunch of home movies from the group's childhood. Yet, each creative act demands a blood sacrifice--while Jon and Steve have their passionate fling in the other room, Trevor matter-of-factly burns himself with a cigarette. Later, while fishing, he cuts himself with a fishhook. This latter act seems, by some disturbed logic, to spark his idea for the hockey rink. The very things he uses for comfort become instruments of punishment to appease and quiet the voice in his head that brands him a failure.

The film's clear plot line wraps up in a moving, yet mainly unresolved, ending. There are some strong metaphors and themes--the ice and snow, obviously, and the cold and deadly lake outside. The deer that Vaughn shoots appears to represent both his brother and himself. His guilty attempt to hide his deed is the first true crack in his angry facade. The use of nudity also shows the various ways the characters hide (and are forced to reveal) their secrets. The music does a nice job of setting the mood, particularly at the end. Also, both Jon and Trevor are presented as creative, intelligent, educated men who, ironically, fare a lot better in the wild than they do in civilization. The contrast between brutish, Yuppified civilization and creative, zen-like wilderness is subtle but pervasive. Nor is the latter approach presented as unambiguously healthy in a world that rewards working in a box over living a free life. The film tries to show the effects of the characters' actions on each other, not preach. No, it's not a perfect movie, but ultimately, it's a satisfying one, leaving plenty to think about after the final credits.

Boys To Men To Boys

[cchase · 8/10 · 26 July 2008]

Ooops, I did it again. TLA Video was running another one of their two-fer-one sales, and when I saw the previews to ICE MEN and realized that this was one of the movies being offered, I snapped it up...with reservations. This is always a pretty spotty process, and like Forest Gump's "boxa chocklits", you never quite know what you're gonna get.

ICE MEN's big selling point is that it was co-written and directed by Thom Best, the original DP for Showtime's QUEER AS FOLK. Since I liked that series for the most part, I was definitely willing to give Thom a shot, (which is exactly what Wolfe Video was counting on. I mean, c'mon! The audience this movie is aimed at are not exactly UFC fighters-in-training.)

Well, for the first twenty minutes or so, the title couldn't have been more apt, since watching the story unfold was about as exciting as sitting around and observing a glacier melt.

Vaughan, or "Vonnie" for short (Martin Cummins of POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY and THE 4400) is your typical, tightly-wound alpha male, who has decided to invite his friends to the family cabin he now owns, located out in the middle of "Hellandgone." It's a pretty telling character detail that when he first climbs out of his car and gets snow on his $500 shoes, he would rather run through the snow in his socks and walk into the cabin barefoot than track anything in. And this cabin is not exactly a room in one of the Trump Towers. Now THAT'S anal.

His disposition doesn't really change when his buds arrive: bickering friends Jon (Greg Spottiswood) and Steve (James Thomas) are the first to turn up. Jon's a photographer who is hoping to enlist Vonnie's help in getting him an important gig; Steve, the group musclehead who is a personal trainer, is also about to marry his dream 'trophy' wife,

Add to the mix Vonnie's best friend, Bryan (the excellent David Hewlett of STARGATE: ATLANTIS and TREED MURRAY), a drug-and-drink addled aspiring singer/songwriter and the group is complete. Well, maybe not quite. It does get rounded out by the unexpected appearance of Vonnie's estranged brother, Trevor (Ian Tracy), who is probably the only member of the group whose self-esteem is twice as low as Bryan's.

The whole thing begins to play out more like "The Boys in the Barrens" than "The Boys in the Band", although it's obviously set in Canada and not New Jersey. Male bonding gets messy as lies are uncovered, unrequited love and lust transmutes into unfortunate couplings and this group, whose emotional states were once encased in a state of "permafrost" that goes back to their days as pre-pubescent best friends, slowly thaw out for better and for worse, to allow them to become more complete (and adult) men.

As snail-paced as this story is, I'm probably making it sound like I enjoyed it more than I expected to - which I actually did. It's just that you have to be really patient with the manner in which many of the revelations about these men's lives unfold. At times, the acting slides dangerously into "Emoting 101" territory, but pulls back before it gets too deep into maudlin clichés.

Greg Spottiswood gets props from me as the only openly gay man in the group, who avoids the usual tics and affectations that would completely destroy a character like Jon. James Thomas is not so fortunate as Steve, who is the object of Jon's affections. Steve's role as closeted jock/eye-candy is pretty stereotypical, but when you're this easy on the eyes, the lack of depth can be forgiven somewhat. (Kind of like the big-breasted bimbo role in a 100% hetero drama.)

Most of the heavy lifting here is done by Cummins' Vonnie, David Hewlett's Bryan, who never has gotten the credit he deserves for his acting chops, in my humble opinion, and most of all, Ian Tracy's Trevor. Trevor is probably the member of the group who is the least easy on the eyes, but has the most going on emotionally. As the "outsider looking in", he is able to observe the guys closely, and his acerbic commentary cuts to the heart of what's going on with everyone and their dysfunctional relationships. The best thing is that no one there is more damaged and desperate than Trevor himself, and at the end of the day, turns out to be the one person in the most need of being saved. This is the kind of role that actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Madsen are famous for, so it's nice to know that they don't have a corner on the market.

ICE MEN is not going to be for everybody, and it's not a film that just screams out to be showered with multiple accolades and awards. But as a character study of Five Men In Search of Their Lost Friendships And Themselves, I have seen movies that were a whole lot worse than this.

Starts off a little slow, but draws you in.

[succotash · 8/10 · 26 December 2005]

When the movie first started, it seemed a little slow moving in terms of character development and it felt like some of the lines were contrived and just weak. I found myself thinking, ho hum...is this going to be another mediocre film by Wolfe Video? (Not all their stuff is bad, but some of it is terrible.) Fortunately, after a few minutes, the stories of the characters begin to unfold and we begin to get a sense of identifying with each of them, who they are, and why they have come together. I say "each of them" because I'm a man and can see a little part of myself in each of these characters (whether now or in the past). I won't give any of the story away--there are some very tense scenes; however, they are well done. The bright spot is that this film is an insightful look at how men interact with each other sometimes, they way we think as men and hide things...not just from women, but from other men as well as from ourselves, even to our own detriment. Deep down, all men are searching for acceptance.

While I wouldn't call this an uplifting film, it's also not a downer either. We are left with good feelings. Admittedly, I do think there could have been a bit more character/story resolution in the end with some of the characters. We're left hanging in some ways...but then again, life is also like that at times, ie: sometimes, things in life happen that we as humans are just not able to resolve, and again, as men, our way of resolving them is just to bury them and not talk about them.

While not the next big Oscar winner, I definitely found this a good, solid, watchable film, and would recommend it. Great performances by all the actors, but Ian Tracey really shines as Trevor. His outstanding performance throughout really helps bring the whole ensemble together. I could not imagine this film working as well as it did without him as Trevor. A+

Reunions and their Consequences

[gradyharp · 8/10 · 25 December 2005]

Thom Best of 'Queer as Folk' directs this taut story by Michael MacLennan, a tale of how friendships since childhood are altered by life's flow and the difficulties inherent in attempting restoration.

Vaughn (Martin Cummins), distraught over being tossed by his ex Renee (Brandy Ledford), invites his three best friends to his snowbound cabin somewhere in Canada for a weekend of fun, hunting and drinking. Vaughn's parents are now dead and he has taken over the family cabin that held memories of his childhood, both the good and bad aspects of it. The three friends arrive: Jon (Greg Spottiswood) is now a gay man; Steve (hunky James Thomas) is a personal trainer involved with a demanding girlfriend whom he must call constantly to reassure; and Bryan (David Hewlett) an alcoholic songwriter and singer who is on the skids and whose wife is Renee's best friend. Into this mix enters Vaughn's older estranged brother Trevor (Ian Tracey) who has spent his life gambling and comes to request his share of the brothers' inheritance to pay off gambling debts. And to further complicate matters, Renee shows up to 'get her things' and flaunt her decision to leave Vaughn in front of his friends.

In this frozen setting each of the men unearths secrets and demons: no one is who they appear to have been as childhood friends. There is a devastating schism between Vaughn and Trevor magnified by their childhood history of abuse by their hunter father, a sexual encounter between Jon and Steve that reveals much about each, and another sexual encounter involving Bryan and the visiting Renee that likewise brings the pot of ice boil over. There are no resolutions: none are needed. The story merely lets us observe the consequences of reunions with men whose lives have grown apart.

Well directed and beautifully photographed, the story unfolds in a slow but steady fashion that maintains our interest even though the characters (except for Trevor) are tropes to a degree. The one important criticism of this interesting film is the sound editor's problem: the conversations are often drowned in music or spoken so softly that the messages are indecipherable. And that is a shame, because otherwise this is a credible story of how men interact when isolated together after years of life changes. Grady Harp

Hella Good Flick, Eh!

[mzmorpheus09 · 8/10 · 26 December 2006]

I just saw this on DVD and was blown away by it. Thank God they didn't do another film in Canada and then lamely try and 'pretend' that it was set in upper Wisconsin or something just to appease American audiences.

It's a great Boys-Bonding-Over-Brews movie and manages to reveal a lot about the characters -- who are all believable -- while not burying the audience in fart jokes and bravado.

I wish I'd heard about this movie when it was playing in the theatres or maybe during the local indy filmfest because I would have loved to see it on the big screen.

I hope the filmmaker, Thom Best, makes more. And I hope he gets more press for the next one.

All about brotherly love

[EDBAYES · 10/10 · 20 September 2006]

This is what a movie is to be about. The acting was superb, the story content held you in your seat, and the confused love merry-go-round tells you what real life is all about. If it can't bring fear and tears to your eyes, then i suggest you continue watching reality shows. I do know I will search out these actors and try to see their other accomplishments. They are a team to be reckoned with. Go to your blockbusters, or favorite video store and pick up a copy. Prepare yourself for entertainment; invite a date and get the popcorn ready. Oh, and don't forget the rag to wipe the butter off the fingers and the drops from your eyes.

Drama!

[tienkou · 8/10 · 28 August 2006]

If you like drama, you came to the right place because this will give it to you. No the acting is not great but not awful either. Characters are easy to identify with but story can be a little weird at times. Worth the time. Left me wanting to know more.

Without ruining anything the main character has a bug up his but about the past. His brother ignores the past. Two people get it on that should have but didn't want to - Two people who shouldn't have didn't and wanted to.

The weaknesses and fears of men are exposed and stomped on in this movie. It reminded me of my straight brothers and how weak they can be when they proclaim toughness. Drama, Drama, Drama