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Winter of Frozen Dreams
USA 2009
produced by Millie Stanisic, Milka Stanisic, Anthony J. Vorhies, Omar Peraza (executive) for Em & Me Productions, King Isthmus Films
directed by Eric Mandelbaum
starring Thora Birch, Keith Carradine, Brendan Sexton III, Leo Fitzpatrick, Dean Winters, Scott Cohen, Dan Moran, Adam Ferrara, Colleen Camp, Derek Cecil, Tony Cucci, Marsha Dietlein, Ed KErshen, John O'Creagh, Jeff Burchfield, Christie Sanford, Kellee Sweeney, Ken Goewey, James A.Walsh, Justin Alvis, Aya Cash, Michael De Nola, Pete Postiglione, Adam Greer, Traci Hovel, Rich Lounello, Gerardo Rodriguez, Daniel Asher, Tom O'Rourke, Steven Randazzo, Jen Jones, Yvonne Perry, Alyssa Gilbert, Christy Lee Hughes, Kelly Sullivan, Jim Ireland, Terry Rabine, William Swan, Byron Nilsson, Peter L.Frisoni jr, Nicholas Barber, David Breitenstein, Erin Dahl, Terry McKenna, Mary Pennisi, Charles Petraske
written by Michael Graf, Michael Caughill, John Besmer, Eric Mandelbaum, music by Kenneth Lampl
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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It all starts with Gerald (Brendan Sexton III) leading the police to
the dead body of Harry Berge (Dan Moran) he and his girlfriend Barbara
(Thora Birch) have hidden under the snow several weeks ago, after they found the body in her apartment (or at least they claim they
did).
When detective Lulling (Keith Carradine) starts investigating, he soon
finds out that Barbara was by no means the goodie two-shoes student
everyone has figured her for but a prostitute in the employ of one Ken
Curtis (Dean Witners), and the more Lulling digs, the more dirty details
come to the fore, like the fact that dead Harry Berge was not only the
modest factory worker everybody took him for but had a stake in Curtis's
racket, and Barbara was actually his fiancée and the sole benificiary of
his $ 750,000 insurance policy - and she has actually talked about
poisoning him ... During all this, only Gerald sticks with Barbara, even
though he was the one who reported everything to the police in the first
place - but he claims he did it to help her start a new life, and she
claims she understands. Then though he catches her cheating on him with
none other than her pimp Ken curtis ... and from here on it gets weird:
Gerald writes a confession that he has killed Harry Berge in Barbara's
apartment, and she had nothing to do with it. Then he is found dead,
poisoned, and he had dinner with Barbara the night before, where she could
have easily poisoned him. In the end though, she is convicted for the
murder of Harry Berge (to which Gerald confessed) but not the murder of
Gerald, even though the two men died exactly the same way ... Not
a good film, but not a total loss: The performances of at least Thora
Birch and Keith Carradine are pretty good and carry the film, the
non-linear structure of the story turns the whole thing in an interesting
puzzle, and Eric Mandelbaum proves to be a competent enough director to
keep audience interest throughout, despite some very talky sequences. But
that said, the film suffers from its script, and the reason for this is
the based on a true story-banner: Like so many other films based on
a true story, this one doesn't even try to tie up all the loose ends, ever
so often resorts to pure speculation, and features a ridiculously bad
ending. The argument for all this is probably that the true story
this is based on did not provide the film with anything more, the argument
against this though is that in that instance, one shouldn't have
made a movie out of it and instead invested some original ideas to make up
a more plausible murder mystery. Truth to be told, I have seen worse,
but then again, that's not really a reason to watch this one, is it?
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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