EIFF Review: Ice Men

Posted by: Scott Hayes  •  October 16, 2004 @ 11:59am

Filed under: Reviews

John Wayne must be spinning in his cold, silent grave. What has his macho world come to when there are films like Ice Men being made studying the complex world of male emotion? The Duke spits black zombie chaw at us.

That being said, Ice Men is a study of the complex world of male emotion. Vaughn is distant and repressed after his father's death. He invites some of his buds to the family cabin he just bought so that they can do man things and drink, drink, drink. Natch. But like Anniversary Party and The Big Chill before, Ice Men is a stirring pot of secrets and feelings, matters long unresolved. Like when Vaughn's black sheep brother Trevor appears uninvited. Things are gonna get ugly.

Set on a frozen lake in the midst of a severe cold snap, the scenery couldn't be a more perfect metaphor for the lack of brotherly warmth between these two. But apart from them, the rest of the gathered brethren harbor their own desires and pains that, in the end, become a matter of spiritual survival for them to make it out alive. The sparce score only underlines the drama.