According to Albert (Garity) he lives in Wisconsin because it's the only state where people won't laugh at him.

It's difficult not to when you see him togged up in a day-glo orange jumpsuit and a fur trapper's hat hunched over an ice hole with a tiny fishing rod.

However, the slow but wry youngster gets the last laugh - as a champion fisherman he's won thousands of dollars in competition prizes.

He lives with his overbearing mother Edn (Debra Monk) but is watched over with a kindly eye by storekeeper Sean (Dern).

Life is uneventful and routine in the Milwaukee suburb where they live until Tuey and Stan Tites (Folland and Hank Harris) hove into view.

A couple of grifter siblings on the make, they quickly suss out Albert is worth shaking down for a few bob if only they could hook him.

However, slimy salesman Jerry (Quaid) rolls into town claiming to be Albert's long-lost father. And there's also the question of who killed Ena in a hit and run.

Mindell's directorial debut ducks and darts like the evasive fish Albert ruthlessly pursues beneath the frozen lake.

The Tites are a splendidly sleazy creation - she all slatternly skirts and tight pullovers while Harris - with the looks of a youthful Steve Buscemi - is convinced he's got testicular cancer.

However, it's Quaid as the matchstick man on the make putting his sales rep patter to far more graspingly malevolent use that grips the attention.

At times the quirkiness is a little forced but the clever twists and turns keep the attention up and the pay-off rounds things off nicely.

It's also nice to see a movie where the backward lead isn't patronised and displays an unseen wit that outsmarts his quicker-witted co-stars.

Tim Evans