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As with all the previous Jesse Stone TV-crime tales, Thin Ice is both lackluster and mediocre, as if everyone involved were terrified at the mere thought of something resembling distinction creeping into the proceedings, which is a real shame in that director Robert Harmon and star Tom Selleck are talents who’ve impressed many times before. Once again, Selleck stars as the former big-city cop transported to the sleepy, ocean-side Massachutes small town of Paradise where he gets caught up in his share of mysteries. This time he’s got two on his plate: trying to determine who unloaded a gun into a stakeout car populated by him and a fellow cop friend on a rainy night; and trying to solve a seven-year missing-person’s case of a young boy who was abducted in Albuquerque and whose mother thinks is now in Paradise. In between Stone fits in an affair with an Internal Affairs officer, and sessions with a psychologist who’s dubious of Stone’s recent relapse into alcohol. The material is basically standard fare with very little in the way of surprises, and Harmon, whose film debut was the marvelous, nerve-jangling The Hitcher, hasn’t done the anyone any favors by helming it with bland framing and plodding pacing -- you feel as if he were on autopilot throughout the shoot and couldn’t even be bothered to disembark from his director’s chair once in a full moon. Selleck’s not blameless, either. Yes, his character’s supposed to be beat-out and world-weary, but Selleck’s unable to expressively convey inexpressiveness, thus rendering the performance both one-note and enervating, and so much so that in a cut to a post-coital bedroom scene you’re amazed that the character had actually been animated enough to have engaged in something as stimulating as sexual activity. The title is appropriate-enough for something so coldly calculating that it hasn’t so much as an iota of spontaneity or suspense; things just drag from one scene to the next without anything even resembling a valid through-line that would make the segues fluid with narrative drive. (In sheer entertainment value, it’s like riding a merry-go-round rather than a rollercoaster.) The only redeeming factor is the forceful supporting work of William Devane as Stone’s counselor. Always underrated, Devane, in just a few minutes, manages to project more in the way of incisiveness and intelligence than all the other cast members combined; he gets a real relationship going with the viewer and reminds just how lackadaisical the rest of this wet-noodle of a movie joylessly is. He’s terrific; Thin Ice is anything but.

For better Selleck stuff, check out "Runaway" and "Lassiter".

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originally posted: 09/07/09 22:30:37
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