The cheesehead noir “Thin Ice” presents Greg Kinnear in a role that’s almost too easy for him: He’s a morally flexible Wisconsin insurance salesman for whom honesty is the least-likely policy.
In a routine deal with an absent-minded old man (Alan Arkin), Mickey (Kinnear) discovers an antique violin the codger has no idea is immensely valuable. His efforts to slip away with the instrument, though, are complicated by a security-system installer (Billy Crudup) with a slight psychopathic streak.
Cunningly crafted, the film demands close attention as Mickey finds a seemingly simple rip-off getting complicated by sudden violence and the demands of pesky sideline players such as his estranged wife (Lea Thompson), a violin appraiser (Bob Balaban) and an unctuous fellow salesman (David Harbour). As an aging winter melts into a spring that threatens to expose dark secrets, Kinnear and director Jill Sprecher make you feel Mickey’s squirming desperation, even if the ending feels like a cop-out.