Have a dark holiday with John Cusack

"The Ice Harvest" is the most recent film to take on the genre of dark holiday comedy. Following in the footsteps of successes such as Ted Demme's "The Ref" or Terry Zwigoff's "Bad Santa," "Harvest" sets out to show the obscure, and often realistic, side of the holiday season, but somehow manages to fall short.\n"Harvest" was directed by comedy veteran Harold Ramis, the man behind such comedy classics as "Ghostbusters," "Animal House" and "Groundhog Day," which is often said to be the perfect film in some circles. With "Harvest" it is evident that Ramis was looking for a different style of comedy, toying with elements of sleazy humor, noir style crime drama, and even men in mid-life crises. The problem is the film can't seem to decide on one particular overall theme; instead we are left with snippets of what could be three different movies.\nJohn Cusack stars as Charlie Arglist, a fairly average and unhappy lawyer from Wichita, Kan., who yearns for a way out of his fairly mundane life. To do this, Charlie and his friend Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) decide to rip off his key employer Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid,) a Midwest mob boss in the strip club business, and grab a stake of $2 million. The plan appears to be flawless initially, but of course becomes more complicated as the story unravels. \nWhile this is the general storyline, making this film appear to be yet another twisty heist film, the money and the getaway plan really don't play that an important role in the film. Instead Ramis tries desperately to focus on his characters' troubles.\nCharlie and Vic both have serious issues with their family, everyone in the film seems to be an alcoholic and the notion that money can't buy you happiness is thrown into the film during almost every scene.\nNow while there is nothing wrong with taking time to analyze the characters of a film like this, "Harvest" can't seem to find a focus and instead jumps from story to story,\nThe acting is decent enough with some funny moments, although both Thornton and Cusack are fairly boring, perhaps because of a mediocre script. The real winner in the film is Oliver Platt who plays one of the funniest and most obnoxious drunks seen on screen in a long time. While his role is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, Platt manages to steal every scene he's in. \n"The Ice Harvest" has some funny moments and could have been a very strong and different look at the anti-family holiday film, however it just can't seem to find solid ground. The film juggles to many different genres, under uses most of its actors, and in the end comes across as a film that probably won't be remembered as one of Ramis' greats.