(2008, 84 min)
Country: U.S.
Director: Ron Oliver
Studio: Here!
SYNOPSIS:
Private investigator Donald Strachey takes on the case of his life and gets caught
in a high-stakes whirlwind of deceit and murder when his partner asks him to uncover
the source of an anonymous multi-million dollar donation to a youth center.
REVIEW:
In Ice Blues, Strachey’s relationship with his partner Timmy (Sebastian Spence) is
finally front and center. But all is not well in this gay household. “We can’t make dinner
plans with our friends, I don’t remember the last time we went out to movie,” Timmy complains,
fretting about Donald’s late nights at the detective agency. “And it’s dangerous. Some nights
I can’t sleep. I worry there’s someone out there bashing your brains in.”
Then Timmy’s pet charity, a local youth center, is threatened with closure over a lack of funds.
Late one night in a parking garage in darkened parking garage, a mysterious figure gives Timmy
a three million dollar donation.
But this donation comes with some serious strings attached. Soon someone is trying to kill Tommy.
When the thugs start appearing and bodies start turning up, Timmy “hires” Donald to find out who
the money really belongs to.
Before long, Donald and Timmy are both drawn into a web of intrigue involving theft, murder,
long-buried family secrets, and a child pornography ring. Meanwhile, Timmy himself gets a strong
taste of the adrenaline rush that comes from being in the thick of things. “It’s amazing what’ll
happen when your body wants to stay alive,” Donald tells him.
The best part of the movie is the joy of seeing these two attractive men being affectionate and
romantic with each other. The oh-so-macho mystery genre has been notoriously homophobic over the
years, with a surprising number of murderers turning out to have killed for the “shocking twist”
of being gay and in love with another male character. So it’s doubly refreshing to see this genre
reclaimed for us gay folks. Just the unremarked-upon fact that it’s a gay man in the lead makes
this detective series every bit as revolutionary as here! claims it is.
As before, the movie has some nice moments of humor, mostly involving Donald’s put-upon assistant
Kenny (Nelson Wong), who is taking a night class for aspiring detectives that, naturally,
contradicts everything Donald does. Meanwhile, Sebastian Spence’s Timmy, who I’ve found a little too
fussy in previous entries, finds the humor in his character’s transformation from prissy homebody
to gun-wielding he-man (well, mostly).
Some of the action sequences in Ice Blues might be a little too pedestrian, and the
resolution to mystery itself isn’t exactly mind-blowing (though the movie includes a nicely
unexpected twist at the end, revealed to the audience, but not Strachey).
And as in previous entries, the production values are bare-bones. The “ice” of the title seems to
come and go. There’s an occasional establishing shot of snow, though in most of the actual scenes,
it seems to be raining (even in a scene at the airport where a plane is supposedly grounded by
non-existent ice).
But after four movies, I feel a genuine affection and a real fondness for these characters.
More, please!
-- Brent Hartinger, After Elton (http://www.afterelton.com )
