What a misbegotten mess is this would-be black comedy, populated by actors who should have known better. Robin Williams continuing his run of unfunny roles plays a hard-up travel agent in snowy Alaska, married to Holly Hunter who pretends to suffer from Tourette's Syndrome (which allows her to curse non-stop). Since his brother has not been heard from for five years, Williams tries to collect on a million dollar policy, but is told that at least seven years must elapse. So when he comes across a body in a dumpster (killed by goofy Tim Blake Nelson and his boyfriend for unexplained reasons), he appropriates it, laces it with meat to be attacked by wild animals, and claims that his recently returned brother is now dead. Insurance agent Giovanni Ribisi smells a rat and tries to stall the payout while ignoring his quack-psychic girlfriend Alison Lohman. Meanwhile Williams' real brother and semi-psychopath Woody Harrelson reads about his supposed death and returns for a share of the payout. Nelson and friend kidnap Hunter (in her own home) and want "their" body returned to them plus a share of the money as well.
So it continues in the frozen white setting through various unfunny complications to the equally unsatisfactory denouement. Anyone who wishes to compare this movie to "Fargo" is free to do so, but it comes off as an inferior and completely unsatisfactory farrago.
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