Breaking the Ice

This is the kind of film Robert Forster starred in before his career was resurrected by Quentin Tarantino and Jackie Brown; it’s direct-to-video, by way of Starz! Forster stars as Eddie Miller, a traveling diamond salesman on his way out after a heart attack renders him uninsurable. He stays on the job just long enough to break in the new guy, whom he hates from the start: a smart-ass know-it-all named Bobby (Donnie Wahlberg). But the, ahem, ice between them thaws soon enough: Bobby’s awed by Eddie’s ability to sell to anybody, and Eddie likes the kid’s spunk, enough to let him drag his weary ass to a whorehouse, the Altoona Riding Club, for a rubdown and, eventually, a robbery. It’s a road movie and a buddy pic, complete with Jasmine Guy, and given director-writer Dan Cohen’s family history in the diamond biz, it’s spot-on when it comes to the thrill-seeking of the salesman. But as a movie, it makes for really good television.