Review: Frozen Ground

Set in Alaska in the early 1980s, the film deals with Alaska’s most notorious serial killing investigation. Nic Cage plays a veteran state trooper nearing retirement, who doggedly pursues the killer, who has been getting away with it for about 13 years. We know pretty early that the killer is John Cusack (although at first it’s just an abduction case), a rather unassuming family man with all kinds of issues bubbling beneath the surface (and a criminal record that no one seems to have noticed), who abducted more than 20 women, played with them for a bit, then took them out into the wilderness and treated them like wild animals to be hunted down. Vanessa Hudgens plays a teen prostitute whose claims of narrowly escaping being killed have thus far gone unchecked, but whom Cage sees as key to bringing this guy (who claims to have an alibi) to justice. Kevin Dunn, Kurt Fuller, and Dean Norris all play cops, Radha Mitchell plays Cage’s annoyed wife, Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson plays Hudgens’ scummy pimp, and Jodi Lyn O’Keefe plays a drug-abusing hooker who takes Hudgens under her frankly not very trustworthy wing.

 

Written and directed by Kiwi director Scott Walker (his first full-length film assignment and only one as of early 2015), this 2013 killer-thriller/drama comes with the advanced warning that despite featuring an Oscar winner (Nic Cage), an actor enduringly popular with both audiences and critics (John Cusack), and a Gen-Y icon (Vanessa Hudgens), it still managed to avoid cinemas altogether. It also claims to be ‘Based on actual events’, which is code for ‘It was originally based on a true story, and then we altered the fuck out of it to suit our needs’. It was also produced by hippity hopper 50 Cent (along with eleventy billion others), so bear that in mind too. Needless to say, the film’s not very good at all, and having seen the film, I’m not remotely surprised it avoided cinema release.

 

It’s basically a mixture of “Insomnia” and the John Wayne Gacy TV movie “To Catch a Killer”, but not nearly as good as either, despite two OK performances in key roles (Though no one bothers to sound remotely Alaskan, just thought I’d point that out). The best thing about the film is undoubtedly John Cusack, continuing where he left off in “The Paperboy” by playing against type as an accused serial killer. He does the outwardly affable thing well, and underplays it just enough that it’s still credible that he could be a creepy killer underneath. It’s a tricky balance, and the character becomes more overt after a while, but nonetheless Cusack plays this quite admirably. Cusack has never been an over-actor, but he dials it down so much here that it’s genuinely creepy how unemotional he is at times. Very grim-looking, and seemingly without remorse or the capacity for empathy- and yet, he’s a well-liked family man. Vanessa Hudgens, meanwhile, is actually very good as a teen hooker and occasional stripper, who of course is the only stripper in town who has a no-nudity clause in her contract. Given her character’s age, though, I don’t really care about that.

 

Much less effective, however, is Nic Cage, once again in mopey and boring mode. Don’t get me wrong, I loathe hyper scenery-chewing Cage even more, but as much as being emotionless is to Cusack’s advantage, it absolutely does not work for the character Cage is meant to be playing. He gives the line ‘He’s done it before, he’ll do it again!’ the least effort of any actor to have won an Oscar. Sure, he’s playing the hoary old cliché of the cop near retirement, but sweet Jebus, Nic, you signed on for the film, at least try and sound like you believe in it. He gives his lines no emphasis whatsoever, and for someone who can at times be the worst over-actor in movies, at other times he is capable of being the worst at the other end of the scale too. The supporting cast has some capable hands (Kevin Dunn, Kurt Fuller, Dean Norris), but Australia’s own Radha Mitchell sadly gets saddled with yet another one-dimensional unsympathetic wife role, and it’s hard to do anything with that. I’m not sure why her Hollywood career hasn’t quite soared, there’s weaker Aussie actors out there whose careers have proven more lucrative than hers (Sam Worthington, Poppy Montgomery, Rebel Wilson, Dustin Clare, etc). Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (where has she been lately?), meanwhile, overacts in her small turn as an experienced hooker. It’s the kind of role that 10-15 years ago would’ve gone to Gina Gershon, and Ms. O’Keefe ain’t no Gina Gershon. The weirdest thing about 50 Cent being here isn’t how small his role is in the film, but how appallingly cinematographer Patrick Murguia frames him. The role is certainly miniscule, and you’d think with 50 being a producer on the film, he’d at least make sure that you can properly see him in the frame for each of his brief scenes. Did he even bother to look at the dailies? Does he know what dailies are? Murguia further tarnishes the film by taking some truly wonderful Alaskan scenery (not to mention showing the less rural parts of Alaska that you rarely see in the media) and nearly destroys it with his murky, shaky cinematography. It’d actually be a pretty ugly film without the scenery. Murguia favours the unnecessary and unhelpful shaky-cam side of things, even in mere walk-and talk-scenes. Hell, he uses it for an interrogation scene for crying out loud! Why? To ratchet up the tension? That’s what acting is for! Let the actors act, and if you feel they aren’t capable of it, why hire them to begin with? As I’ve said countless times, all shaky-cam does is alert my attention to the artifice of filmmaking, not draw me into the story.

 

The film has a potentially interesting story, albeit one that could be done for TV. I love true crime and serial killer stories, call me a sicko if you want. But Walker isn’t a very good storyteller on evidence here. In one ridiculous scene, Cage gives his superior Kurt Fuller a bunch of stuff he has investigated…but we’ve never seen him actually do the investigating in the first place. This is cinema, dopey. Show, Mr. Director, don’t tell!

 

Woefully inadequate and unworthy of fine performances by John Cusack and Vanessa Hudgens, it’s easy to see why this clichéd and frankly uninteresting film was released direct-to-DVD. The mystery is how it attracted a pretty big name cast. Incriminating photos would be my guess. But hey, if you’ve been waiting your whole life to see 50 Cent play an Alaskan pimp (!) then…actually, you barely get to see him, so don’t even bother.

 

Rating: C-