Thin Ice

Greg Kinnear is one of the most effortlessly likable presences in movies today, which makes him especially good at playing creeps and oddballs. Kinnear is able to incarnate the most abominable, obsessive behavior imaginable – and yet still make us care about the fate of his characters. Given the right material, you can easily imagine him conjuring up a classic cinematic perv whom we’ll never be able to shake from our memories. The half-macabre, half-comic thriller “Thin Ice” isn’t that movie. Directed by Jill Sprecher, who co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Karen, the film plays like a poor-man’s version of “Fargo,” complete with a snowy setting and a scheming central character who finds himself in way over his head. Kinnear plays Mickey, an insurance salesman in Wisconsin, who thinks he can earn a quick buck by duping an old man (Alan Arkin) who owns a violin that’s worth $1 million. Except when Mickey crosses paths with a burglar-alarm specialist (Billy Crudup), Mickey’s plan turns violent. Needless to say, “Thin Ice” contains a twist, one that viewers will probably see coming a mile away. The bigger issue here is that the screenplay is deeply implausible. In trying to pull the wool over the audience’s eyes, the filmmakers end up insulting our intelligence.