Harold Ramis's "The Ice Harvest" is a bleak, black comedy full of unsavory characters caught in unsavory schemes. With an appealing cast, touch of chilly style, and dark sense of humor, the film rates as a solid and humorous crime film.

Taking place over an icy, mid-western Christmas, attorneys, mobsters, and strippers comingle with deadly results after a bank robbery. The story is sturdy and twisted if none-too-original. Still, its compelling in its slow-rolling observation of characters and actions.

Ramis shoots with an eye on his cast and his frozen surroundings. John Cusack, Connie Nielsen, and Billy Bob Thornton star, and Cusack and Thornton offer exactly what an audience would expect from them. Cusack is good-natured, self-effacing, and low-key, while…