Plot

Con-man insurance salesman Mickey, dangerously at the end of his rope after his wife throws him out of the house, learns that an elderly client named Gorvy has an extremely valuable violin in his possession and is not aware of its worth ($25,000). Desperate for money, Mickey builds a friendship with Gorvy based on the possibility of stealing the violin for money. Complications arise when Mickey hires a small time ex-con named Randy to steal the instrument, and realizes he has bitten off more than he can chew.

Cast

• Greg Kinnear
  Greg Kinnear
  Gregory "Greg" Kinnear is an American actor and television personality who first rose to stardom in 1991. He has appeared in more than 20 motion pictures, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in As Good as It Gets.-Early life:Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, the son of...
  
   as Mickey Prohaska
• Alan Arkin
  Alan Arkin
  Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
  
   as Gorvy Hauer
• Billy Crudup
  Billy Crudup
  William Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore...
  
   as Randy Kinny
• Lea Thompson
  Lea Thompson
  Lea Katherine Thompson is an American actress and director. She is best known for her 1990s NBC situation comedy Caroline in the City and her portrayal of Lorraine Baines McFly, Marty McFly's mother, in the Back to the Future trilogy...
  
   as Jo Ann Prohaska
• Bob Balaban
  Bob Balaban
  Robert Elmer "Bob" Balaban is an American actor, author and director.-Personal life:Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television...
  
   as Leonard Dahl
• David Harbour
  David Harbour
  David Harbour is an American actor who has performed in film, television and in the theater. He is known for his role as villain Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace, as Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road, and as Russell Crowe's source in State of Play...
  
   as Bob Egan
• Michelle Arthur
  Michelle Arthur
  -Movies:She appeared as the Thorpe Sisters in the 1986 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey. Arthur also appeared in the James Bond film Goldeneye as "Anna"...
  
   as Karla Gruenke

Production

Filming began in February and ended in March 2010, and though set in Wisconsin was shot during winter in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, particularly Bloomington

Bloomington, Minnesota

Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...

 and Minnetonka

Minnetonka, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 51,301 people, 21,393 households, and 14,097 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,893.0 persons per square mile . There were 22,228 housing units at an average density of 818.9 per square mile...

. The film was released in January 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

. The film was purchased by ATO Pictures and was released October 21, 2011. The film premiered locally in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Center on October 12, 2011.

Reception

Thin Ice received generally positive reviews from critics. Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is an American critic, novelist and essayist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly....

 of the New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

said in his review; "Kinnear is ideal for this role" and ultimately "The Convincer turns out to be an ambitiously structured and clever scam movie". Rob Nelson of Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

said; "there are pitch-perfect comic notes from the whole ensemble (...) Stephen Mirrione's editing hits all the right beats, and Pope's brilliantly composed widescreen images of the Wisconsin tundra are as bright as any noir's could be".