Frozen Stupid

The call of the wild is a part of us all. For Tony Norgard, the call to go ice fishing one day outweighs any commitment he made to attend a family gathering. Little does Tony realize, there will be consequences to endure for his decision. It's a Saturday, on a snowy Midwestern winter landscape, and Tony Norgard really wants to go ice fishing. But he is pressured to attend his mother-in-law's birthday party on the same day. To solve the dilemma, Tony feigns being ill and stays in bed. While his little white lie allows him the chance for a secret outing, it comes with a heavy price. Through the day, misfortune seems to meet him at every turn. When he meets up with his dad Frank, things get worse. Tony's lie seems to have put a curse on what should otherwise have been a simple day of fishing for everyone. Unaware of the charade, Tony's wife Lila happily goes about her day, sorry that her husband is at home, sick in bed, missing a great weekend of family fun. Tony befriends the spirited and very independent Stormy, a beautiful, yet rugged ice fisher woman. Stormy becomes one of the many unusual characters Tony meets in this frozen lake community of anglers. Through it all, even Tony is dwarfed by the magnitude of his compounding troubles. But he is an optimistic man and in his own way tries to put the best spin on the mess he has created. With hopeful confidence, Lila somehow manages to see past his ice-fishing antics. She remembers the honorable man she married, and armed with large amounts of grace, remains supportive. This comedy tells the tale of a cantankerous father and his bumbling but well-meaning son who share a joyous obsession for the age old art of ice fishing. —Richard Brauer