Written and directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, co-written by Geoff Cox, Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot for a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen. She becomes fascinated by its star, Cristina, an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing. Starring: Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini, August Diehl, Gaspar Noé and Marine Gesbert.
Lucile Hadzihalilovic has a fantastic track record for creating enigmatic, curious, intense and unusual cinema, with a testing edge. The concept for The Ice Tower fits squarely into that arena but sadly the execution can’t quite live up to it. It starts off slowly and struggles to build its presence, there’s a strange, intriguing atmosphere but the story doesn’t progress enough in those early scenes to truly draw you in. It takes nearly half of the film to finally find its footing, to begin exploring the relationship between Jeanne (Clara Pacini) and Cristina (Marion Cotillard) and then things become interesting.
From then on, Hadzihalilovic adds in some great dark notes, there’s plenty of tension, and an obsessive and unhealthy tone. It almost has notes of Suspiria, and it starts to get a grip onto the audience. Those later scenes feel like the true foundation of The Ice Tower which are sadly coming in so late that there isn’t the time to explore them to fruition. Hadzihalilovic and Cox don’t quite manage to incorporate the real risk and reward of the situation, to play out their entanglement far enough to make a statement. It ultimately feels too familiar, even if not typically occurring between two women.
It’s a shame as it doesn’t let Marion Cotillard and Clara Pacini cut loose enough and really delve into that darkness. It feels like a great time in Cotillard’s career to embrace the sinister, to really revel in manipulative, insidious characters. To stray away from the more traditionally complex and find something more troubled and unhinged, as she definitely has the intensity for it and you can see that within this role, but it doesn’t reach its full potential. Similar could be said of Pacini, she creates a great evolution to Jeanne and instils that naivety but also how she craves something more that pushes her into new, troubled places.
The Ice Tower had immense potential, there’s a good concept, strong acting, the visual is an intriguing blend of opulent and obscure, mixing a grim reality with the glamour of the shoot, it just couldn’t live up to it. It takes too long to find its rhythm which doesn’t leave it long enough to explore its themes and to build to a bigger height before bringing everything crashing down. It does well to incorporate that dark fairy tale edge, and there is something there, it keeps you holding on but there’s little satisfaction to be found.
FilmCarnage.com 