The Frozen Ground (2013)

Director: Scott Walker

Writer: Scott Walker

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Vanessa Hudgens, John Cusack

Rated: R (violent content, sexuality/nudity, language, drug use)

So apparently I had seen this movie before – something I wasn’t aware of until the random scene involving a moose happened. I wasn’t sure that was a good thing…

The Frozen Ground stars Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and believe it or not, Vanessa Hudgens (yes, the girl from High School Musical). Obviously when I randomly picked this movie and saw that Nicolas Cage was in it my first response was “well it has to be good I mean its Nicolas Cage!” (Jokes, people. I joke sometimes.) As most avid movie watchers know, Oscar winner Nicolas Cage has been in numerous films that are…well…just plain awful. I mean Drive Angry? The Wicker Man?? Left Behind??? Don’t even get me started. Nicolas Cage, man, what the hell happened?

Okay let’s not talk about how Nicolas Cage is basically bipolar when it comes to the movies he’s in. Now lets talk about the film. So I’m sure a majority of film lovers or critics probably didn’t expect much from this movie – probably because of the casting choices – and to be completely honest, I didn’t either. I thought Vanessa Hudgens was a particularly peculiar choice and basically expected her to simply suck. Well…I was wrong and she surprised me very much.

Alright briefly I’ll explain what the movie is about. It takes place in Anchorage, Alaska in 1983 and it’s based on the true story of Alaskan State Trooper, Jack Halcombe (Nicolas Cage) and his search for serial killer, Robert Hansen (John Cusack) who after thirteen years of going unnoticed has been discovered again after a series of murders occur (all of young women – mostly “street girls.”) None of the girls had escaped except for one, Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens) who approaches and then aides Halcombe in locating and arresting Hansen all before the next murder takes place.

While I did have a few issues with The Frozen Ground, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I thought, despite Nicolas Cage’s history, my disliking of John Cusack, and my overall doubts about Vanessa Hudgens that they all gave some pretty awesome performances. I was especially pleased with Vanessa Hudgens, as this is such a different character from those I’m used to seeing her portray. You are welcome to disagree if you’ve seen it already but you can’t deny she tried. I mean she’s literally gone from being a Disney kid to starring in pretty sophisticated movies. But that doesn’t include Sucker Punch; let’s just not talk about that one…

As I said, John Cusack is pretty much the opposite of my favorite actor for personal, and frankly pretty stupid reasons, but I actually thought he gave the best performance of all three of the main leads. I mean if an actor or actress can make you hate them as much as I hated him in this movie, that’s saying something. He ain’t no Officer Daniels, but hey, he was good.

I thought the movie was also overall well balanced. By that I mean that there was a fare share of drama, thrills and suspense but also scenes during which we could get to know some of the characters. I respected this aspect of the movie because I think that there are so many movies that try to be so many genres at once that the film just feels like an unorganized mess. (Dirty Girl – two reviews back – would be an excellent example of this.)

For the parts of the movie I didn’t like I’ll begin with talking super briefly about the soundtrack. Now this was technically something my mom mentioned so I’m just going to sum up what she said, which is similar to how I felt by the end of the movie. While the music wasn’t bad, it just didn’t really fit at certain moments. Seriously Nicolas Cage would be opening his file cabinet or something on top of which was just this mega-intense music. Honestly if someone who couldn’t see were watching the movie and no one was telling them what was going on they would probably think that instead of opening his file cabinet, Cage was dying a painful and dramatic death. Of course this movie is dramatic so the music did seem appropriate for the most part but during some scenes me – and my mom – were both just thinking, Mr. Composer Sir, you my friend need to calm down.

The next issue I had was the chemistry between Nicolas Cage and Vanessa Hudgens. While I thought they were both quite good, I literally felt that the chemistry between them was practically non-existent. This could have been because the script during scenes where they interacted with each other wasn’t strong or simply because I watched Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense three days after but I just didn’t buy their characters’ connection. There is a particular scene that takes place in a skate rink with the two of them eating pizza and talking about Cindy’s childhood and abusive father and then the story of Halcombe’s sister’s death and while it was obviously a touching moment, I wasn’t moved at all just because of the lack of on-screen chemistry.

The last problem I had wasn’t the cinematography but the never-ending shaky camera. One big decision the director and cinematographer of a film must make together is if the camera will be held steady on a tripod or if it will be handheld. Handheld camera work is often used to evoke some sort of emotion from the audience, for example in Jaws, cinematographer Bill Butler managed to convince Spielberg to use shaky camera work throughout the entire film in order to make the action feel more intense and real. Having the technique used for the whole film was obviously a good choice as Jaws is considered to be an extremely visually intense movie today but for The Frozen Ground I just didn’t think it added anything to many of the scenes. I don’t know, watch the movie and see what you think. Maybe I’m just being picky.

Well, to end my “F” review, I’ll recommend this movie to anyone who’s a fan of Nicolas Cage, Vanessa Hudgens or John Cusack as they all deliver solid performances. It’s an entertaining crime thriller that will have you at least a little on edge for the most part.

Oh and I also have the mention that originally the random movie I picked for the letter F was Fifty Shades of Grey and I literally almost cried. That movie looks like nothing I ever want to experience on screen (or in real life!) so I had a fiesta when I realized it hadn’t even been released in theaters yet. I thank whoever decided not to release it in 2014, you deserve a special place in heaven.