“The Ice Harvest” is, as its name implies, a slippery little film. It’s standard film noir, all lean, dirty and full of sex and violence, but it’s also a slapstick-sprinkled sort of anti-Christmas movie. It’s hard to classify but is actually easy to watch, courtesy of John Cusack’s and Oliver Platt’s flawed, but charmingly nebbish, characters.

Charlie Arglist (Cusack) is a crooked attorney in a crooked town, namely, Kansas City. Strip clubs dot a landscape populated by two groups of people—those actually involved with the mob, like Charlie, and those who want to get involved with the mob, like Charlie’s former best friend Pete (Platt) and the doofy patrolman who seems to be tailing Charlie. The only person who doesn’t want to be in the mob is Charlie, who, along with his friend Vic (Billy Bob Thornton), a strip-club owner, has just stolen more than $2 million from the local mob boss. Just as they get ready to blow town, an ice storm rolls in and traps them for the evening. Vic figures they should lay low, but Charlie starts gallivanting around. He buys drinks for strippers, is nice to people, and generally acts like someone who just stole a lot of money. This odd behavior attracts the attention of mob enforcer Roy Gelles (Mike Starr) as well as the sultry Renata (Connie Nielsen), the owner of another strip club on whom Charlie has a big crush.

Despite the relatively dark plot and mostly immoral characters, “The Ice Harvest” is still pretty fun, mostly because of Cusack. This is familiar territory for Billy Bob Thornton, who’s starred in both neo-noirs (the Cohen brothers’ “The Man Who Wasn’t There”) and mean-spirited holiday flicks (“Bad Santa”). Because the material is so well-worn for Thornton, it’s fortunate he isn’t actually on screen much, leaving Cusack to capably carry the film. In a sea of backstabbing crooks and gun-toting goons, Cusack is the human center, a downtrodden guy whose only lucky break comes in the form of grand larceny. Cusack is no Richard Widmark, but he plays the part of a hapless noir hero with charm and ease. The same can’t be said for Nielsen, who tries much too hard to be a femme fatale. Everything from her clothes to the way she speaks is about 60 years out of synch with the rest of the characters. It would be fine if the rest of the cast were similarly over the top (or maybe if the film were in black and white), but otherwise Nielsen is just too much.

What really lifts “The Ice Harvest” are the inspired sequences of slapstick that director Harold Ramis scatters throughout the movie. These bits, like tiny pieces of rock salt, melt the tension and anxiety that fills the movie and lighten the mood just a tiny bit. Platt and Cusack take their fair share of pratfalls, but the most inspired sequence features Cusack and Thornton wrestling with an angry mobster trapped inside a footlocker. It might be bleaker and less friendly than typical holiday film fare, but thanks to Cusack and Platt, “The Ice Harvest” still has a heart, albeit one that’s about two sizes too small.

starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thonrton,  Connie Nielsen and Oliver Platt
directed by Harold Ramis
rated R for violence, language, sexuality/nudity and other un-Christmas-like things