Summary
A detective hunts down the famous serial killer Robert Hansen.
My Thoughts:
The Frozen Ground follows “it's Jack, Jack Halcombe,” (Nicolas Cage, “A Score to Settle”) an Alaskan state detective, who, with only two weeks left until retirement turns his sites to one last job, to hunt down and bring to justice the serial killer Robert ('the butcher Baker) Hansen, who has been preying on ladies of the night for over a decade now. With the help of Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens, “Sucker Punch”) who managed to escape the killers clutches and run away, her and Jack must piece together clues surrounding this villain and bring him to justice. Now I'm fairly well educated on the Butcher Baker so I've been curious to watch this film for a while now, but a bit hesitant due to the reviews, and this Nicolas Cage series was the perfect excuse to finally sit down and view it. And while it doesn't do nearly a good enough job to put in perspective just how pervasive and twisted this killer really was, it does do some things very well to tie the narrative together.
As stated above this is based on a true story, Robert Hansen is a real serial killer, and a truly nasty one at that, there's a podcast by Dan Cummins streaming wherever podcasts stream that shines an excellent light on the killer's life. While I don't believe this film really showcases the real life story that inspired it, it's still a solid murder mystery that deserves to be checked out by genre enthusiasts and Cage fans alike, who gives us a nice subtle performance, proving again that he is an actor who can be taken seriously, it's much like 'Joe' in its tone and atmosphere.
Set in the frigid tundra of Alaska the settings is really what makes Frozen Ground pop, the town is on a constant dreary haze that always feels tense and dreadful as people wait for the next victim, it definitely takes some inspiration from 'Fargo' in terms of isolation which this film nails pretty well. While Nicolas Cage gives a good performance, as good as a performance that a mid budget police procedural can get, honing in on a more human character than anything over the top like we're used to seeing from him. Vanessa Hudgens however is not so fortunate, her performance in this is insulting to the real life Cindy Paulson, who was a victim, yes, but also showed strong conviction to bring her would be killer to justice. The writing of her character is poor, making her into a damsel in distress rather than a hero character, she hides behind Halcome for the entire duration. Nicolas Cage can overcome bad writing usually because he's a strong actor, Hudgens on the other hand is not, every word and blocked movement feels forced and awkward, she brings nothing believable to the table and is completely outmatched by her co stars acting abilities.
The narrative in Frozen Ground feels a bit too guided, it's a straight line, the cops find clues and they solve said clues and move on to the next until finally the showdown between Halcombe and Hansen, which is also done quite poorly, with cinematography so shaky and amateur it would give Paul Greengrass a headache. The scene in which Hansen hunts down one of his victims in the woods could have been a truly unnerving and brutal scene but the camerawork makes it next to impossible to see anything at all.
Overall The Frozen Ground is an okay police procedural based on a much more interesting and exciting true story. It suffers from lack of confidence in the director's chair and some poor acting from all besides Nicolas Cage, Cusack (“Say Anything”) isn't necessarily bad but he's given close to zero lines. Vanessa Hudgens should really just stick with her music career as she really brings this film down a notch, her acting is too forced to be ignored. It's a decent movie that outlines a horrific moment in Alaskan history, but with a poor script and direction it keeps it from being a great one. A good atmosphere and a solid Nic Cage performance keep this one from going belly up.
I give The Frozen Ground 2.5 stars out of 5.
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