It’s no great surprise to anyone who knows me, but I’m a Nicolas Cage fan.  I enjoy his work.  Sure, some of his more recent stuff hasn’t been very good overall BUT his contributions, by and large, are solid — and he hits gold more often than not.  However, this post is not about Nicolas Cage’s movie career, but, rather, some of my thoughts from watching his flick “The Frozen Ground”.

First and foremost, it was okay.  I had heard of this story before — I think I saw one of those crime TV shows about it — but, essentially, there’s a guy (played by John Cusack) who is abducting women/strippers/prostitutes and then rapes, tortures, and kills them, dumping their bodies in the wilderness of Alaska…..actually, I should just say “Alaska” — you can do the “wilderness” math on that.

As far as the movie goes, it was okay.  It wasn’t anything that really moved me or left me saying “Wow…” with a single tear rolling down my cheek afterwards; and I doubt that it made any buzz during award season.  Nic Cage was clutch, as he usually is, and Cusack played a pretty solid villain/mentally disturbed guy.  I’m not a fan of Vanessa Hudgens, though, and casting 50 Cent as the pimp was also not one that I think made a lot of sense.  I just don’t think that either Vanessa Hudgens or 50 Cent can act.

There were a few things that annoyed me in this movie: 1) the police are quick to dismiss the girl’s story (despite her clear physical evidence of surviving a torturous episode….hell, she didn’t handcuff and beat herself up);  2) Nic Cage’s movie-wife’s objection to helping out the girl and letting her stay in their house for one night; and 3) the girl constantly doing things that Nic Cage specifically told her not to do…which I allude to in my Twitter post.

1) Look, police are people, too, and so they make mistakes….but that’s a pretty big miss, in my book.  Had she strolled into the police station and made the accusation, then that’s one thing.  But to be discovered in a panic, handcuffed, clear evidence of physical trauma, and shaking uncontrollably, I’m going to err on the side that “Hey, maybe she’s not making this up…” and look into it.  They straight up dismissed the story because she’s a prostitute and the accused is an upstanding citizen.  But aren’t the weirdos and messed up people always the ones that are upstanding?  I wish that in movies they’d have that “common sense guy” in the war room to be like: “Well, we should at least look into this… I mean, clearly she didn’t handcuff and beat herself, right?”  Plus, she knew a lot about the guy and the interior of his home for someone who, using police logic, should have no business being inside of the man’s home…..since she is a prostitute and he is an upstanding citizen.  So, yeah, they really dropped the ball on that one.  The fact that she knew he had a plane should be enough to be like “Hmm….”  Unless everyone in Alaska has a plane — I’ll get to my comments on Alaska later, though — that should have been enough to raise a flag, because what random prostitute would know that some guy had a plane and be able to describe it in detail??? That annoyed me that they dismissed her story right away.

2) It annoyed me that Nic Cage’s movie-wife objected to letting the girl stay at their place for the night. For ONE night (or so Nic Cage pleaded).  Sure, being in the midst of a move and having quit your job because your bad-ass husband (Nic Cage) had put in his paperwork to transfer (or something)….but it’s been two weeks and you still haven’t moved…..can be tough and stressful, I get it.  But, you know what else is stressful? TRACKING DOWN A MAN WHO IS MURDERING DOZENS OF WOMEN AND DUMPING THEIR BODIES IN THE WILDERNESS!!!  AND then you FINALLY have the one person who can close the case — the ONLY woman who managed to escape from the murderer — literally in your house, under your protection…..and your wife says “no dice”.  WHAT?!?!  If anyone can get behind what Nic Cage is trying to do and just how VITAL this girl is to his case, shouldn’t it be a woman? Especially, since his wife sort of met the physical characteristics of what this bastard was attracted to….. AND she’s the mother of TWO DAUGHTERS!!! C’mon!! This should have been a lay-up like “Oh definitely my poor girl! Come in and be safe!”  Nope – instead, she fights with Nic Cage over the girl staying in their home FOR ONE NIGHT, and not even in that polite manner, either, of taking it to the bedroom or someone private — she gets into it with him right there in the kitchen where everyone in the house…. especially the now-feeling-terribly-unwanted girl…..can hear.  So, of course the girl then leaves the house and, having no where to go, almost gets re-abducted and killed.  Which brings me to my next point of annoyance….

3) When Nic Cage tells you to do something – you do it.  He’s never wrong.  When the girl was hospitalized following an overdose, Nic Cage is there for her with her safety being his top priority — as she is the only chance he has to put this sick bastard away.  But she resists and says she needs to go to her pimp’s place to get her stuff, but Nic Cage is like “No way.  Are you insane?? Being on the street is how you got into this situation in the first place.  No, stay put and I’ll go get your stuff.” [or, at least, that is what he should have said to her]  She doesn’t listen.  That night she sneaks out of the hospital and goes back to the pimp hideout where she finds out that, oh, some guy is looking for her…. oh, and her pimp is going to hand her over to be killed in order to erase a sizable debt that he has….. it annoyed me.  Just stay in the hospital.  You have a relatively comfy bed, it’s warm, there was a police guard outside the door, and it’s a very public place with 24-hour staff presence.  Why leave it? That doesn’t make sense to me.

Also, when Nic Cage says: “Hey, I need to keep this girl at the house overnight tonight because she has no where to go and she is VITAL to the closing this case” – you can’t say “no, she needs to leave.”  Did you not hear what Nic Cage just said??  How does sending the girl off onto the street alone where she only has enemies make any sense?? Yeah, it’s an inconvenience – sure; and, yeah, this case is taking up way too much of Nic Cage’s time and energy than you wanted; and, sure, you were supposed to move a few weeks ago but then this case came up and ruined that plan — I get it: you’re not happy about the inconvenience and stress that this case has presented in your life.  But you had might as well ride it out; you’re already 3/4 of the way through the movie.  The “damage” (if we want to call it that) is already done, why kick the ONLY witness/evidence in the case out of your home to have her get killed or to have the case fall apart?  Then all of that stress and inconvenience was for nothing….and Nic Cage probably separates from you afterwards because you killed his case.  There’s no upside that I can see.

 

Those were the three parts that really annoyed me about this movie.  Otherwise, it was well-done and, even though you know that Cusack’s character is guilty, it is interesting to see how Nic Cage builds the case and uses some creative interrogation tactics in order to get the confession that he needs.  Concluding with, once again, when Nic Cage tells you to do something — you do it.  If he says for you to tell him how you murdered these girls and where their bodies were dumped — you better tell him.

Also, Alaska is kind of a weird place.  This paragraph will be mostly devoted to me sort of making fun of Alaska, so feel free to skip it if you’re not interested in me making fun of our neighboring state to the north.  I know that not all of Alaska is located north enough for the 6 months of sunshine / 6 months of nighttime, but that, I imagine, screws people up.  If I only get a few hours of sleep, I’m cranky; I can’t imagine what psychological damage that environment can do to a person.  Plus, it is one of those “last frontier” places….and that tends to attract deviants and crime (i.e. the American West prior to civilized settlement).  People who abduct, torture, murder, and dispose of bodies in the wilderness would definitely be attracted to Alaska.  Sure, that may happen in the “lower 48″….but I don’t think that the opportunities are as present since the “uninhabitable land”-to-population ratio is much, much, much smaller.   Alaska is also the only state in the Union that pays its residents to live there…. which is something I always pointed out to college friends from Alaska who would talk about how great it is up there (as they elected to leave and not go back).  They pay the people to live there.  I’ve also never been comfortable with the idea of living somewhere that requires that you plug your car in overnight….so that the engine fluids do not freeze.  That’s God’s way of saying: I don’t think that people should live here.

Well, in closing, “The Frozen Ground” was decent – it was a good Netflix movie.  Longer than I expected, considering that the TV crime show wrapped up the case in an hour (with commercials), whereas this movie was a bit longer at 1hr 45mins.  I’d recommend it only if you are a Nic Cage fan or happen to have an interest in bizarre and horrible crimes committed in one of the more obscure states in the Union.  Otherwise, you can probably pass on it and not miss out on too much.

-Ryan.