The Frozen Ground

Nicolas Cage may be the reigning King of the Hams, but as ‘The Paperboy’ proved, John Cusack also has his eye on the porky prize. When they met, it was always gonna be murder...well, serial murder, to be precise. Cusack plays the perp here, real-life Alaskan predator Robert Hansen, who abducted around 20 women in the early ’80s. Cage is the straight-arrow cop on his trail, facing retirement but plunging back into the mire for one… last… case… Cop movie clichés are all over ‘The Frozen Ground’, from the hooker with a heart (Vanessa Hudgens) to the obscenity-spewing pimp (Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, who also co-produced). But it’s hard to take offence: this is an unambitious, old-school thriller, nothing more and nothing less. There are highlights – the interrogation scenes between Cage and Cusack crackle with scenery-chewing intensity – and low points, like the tasteless treatment of Hudgens’s character. But director Scott Walker (not that one, pop fans) holds things together proficiently, and there are enough twists to keep it rattling along.