Thin Ice (2012)

Critic Reviews

• Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

  It's just a little slow getting started.

• Ty Burr, Boston Globe

  The movie never fully clicks.

• Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

  An amusingly nerve-wracking trek into the snow and out onto the ice with those funny folks in the land of "you betcha."

• Tom Long, Detroit News

  At one point you're looking at the screen going, "This makes no sense!" Then after a long conclusionary explanation, you shake your head and say, "I'm still not sure that made much sense."

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  There's nothing like the macabre to bring intrigue to an ordinary life, and nothing like the logistics of body disposal to challenge an insurance salesman.

• Rafer Guzman, Newsday

  If only the film were as good as Kinnear.

• Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

  ...the film that has made its way into theaters is no disgrace to any of the names in the credits. Still, it would be very interesting to see the movie that the Sprechers intended to make.

• Chris Foran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

  The movie's gently snowbound Midwestern setting blunts some of the story's harsher edges, and the characters mostly feel real.

• Jim Lane, Sacramento News & Review

  ... the ride is pretty giddy ...

• James Verniere, Boston Herald

  Cracks show in Thin Ice

• Tricia Olszewski, Washington City Paper

  The only things differentiating Thin Ice from Fargo? A lack of Midwestern accents and entertainment value.

• Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix

  Sprecher and her co-writer sister Karen seem to have gone through a card file of used ideas to cobble together this black comedy.

• Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

  It's convoluted and clever, and on that score it works quite nicely. But if you're looking for something substantial beyond this, you're looking for a different movie.

• John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

  A climactic twist tries to make the movie that preceded it more interesting in retrospect than it was while it unfolded, but the plot is too implausible -- too unbelievable, really -- to be clever.

• Tony Macklin, tonymacklin.net

  Thin Ice is choppy, its tone jumps, it has an unnecessary voice-over, and one wonders about the easy, sappy ending. One also wonders what the original movie was like before it fell through the thin ice of manipulation.

• Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews

  ...has the requisite twists and turns of a good whodunit and entertains right to the end.

• Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

  Writer sisters Karen and Jill (who also directs) Sprecher look to the "Fargo" playbook for their twisty modern noir, and while much of it feels awfully familiar, a great cast and third act twist raise it above similar wannabes...

• Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  As a caustic comedy, "Thin Ice" resides just slightly south of "Fargo."

• Jeff Meyers, Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

  Arkin, as expected, is terrific ... but it's Crudup who steals the show. His brutal annihilation of an ice cream cone on Mickey's dashboard is truly a sight to behold.

• Matt Singer, Time Out Chicago

  If Mickey were a little less sneaky, he'd be the perfect protagonist for these hard economic times.

Read all 22 critic reviews