An debt riddled insurance man (Greg Kinnear) plan relieve a witless old man (Alan Arkin) of his prized violin, the extreme value of which he has no idea, but is caught in the act by the codger's security system installer (Billy Crudup) who takes the scheme to a whole new and twisty blood ridden level. Jill Sprecher's "Thin Ice" has a great small crime feel, which probably borders a little too closely to "Fargo," but is fun nonetheless. Kinnear and especially Crudup deliver nice performances and all moves along fairly well until the unsatisfying denouement, which takes way too long to explain the many twists and turns. This project was taken out of the director's hands and shortened by a considerable length (about 20 minutes) and it is hard to determine if this reduction helped or hindered the film. I felt it actually begin to wear at a meager 93 minutes, but that could also be contributed to poor reconstruction.
