director
Ang Lee
screenwriter
James Schamus
based
on the novel by
Rick Moody
producers
Ted Hope
Ang Lee
James Schamus
cinematographer
Frederick Elmes
music
Mychael Danna
editor
Tim Squyres
cast
Kevin Kline (Ben Hood)
Joan Allen (Elena Hood)
Sigourney Weaver (Janey Carver)
Christina Ricci (Wendy Hood)
Elijah Wood (Mikey Carver)
Tobey Maguire (Paul Hood)
Adam Hann-Byrd (Sandy Carver)
Henry Czerny (George Clair)
James Sheridan (Jim Carver)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 112m
u.s.
release: 9/27/97
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
other ang
lee films
reviewed on this website:
- brokeback
mountain
- crouching
tiger, hidden dragon
- hulk
|
The
Ice Storm begins and
ends with a train making its way home to New Canaan, Connecticut.
Its heavy wheels crack the frozen glaze on the tracks as it passes
trees that droop under the weight of glistening icicles. Every
frame of The Ice Storm feels glacial and depressed. The
title event rattles the windows of the perfect suburban houses;
inside, the people ignore the storm, just as they ignore the
frigid emotional climate in their living rooms and bedrooms.
The movie, set in 1973, is easily the best of the current crop
of retro-'70s films. I grew up in the '70s, and I loathe '70s
nostalgia -- the disco, the polyester, the sideburns, that ugly
Mary Tyler Moore Show font, Star
Wars -- I hate it all, and The Ice Storm looks
back with refreshing detachment. It doesn't chuckle affectionately
and say, "Boy, people were goofy back then." No, it
stares through a microscope and says, "People were pathetic
back then." You see the sideburns and the sweater vests,
but you don't laugh much. It's not funny, it's sad.
Director Ang Lee, who showed great skill at depicting repression
in Eat Drink Man Woman and Sense and Sensibility,
isn't as kind to the story's two suburban families as their creator,
Rick Moody, was in his 1994 book. Lee and screenwriter James
Schamus have some compassion for these soul-sick New Canaanites
but don't hold out much hope. These people are beyond help; they
push themselves into "liberation" but trip over their
own psychological shackles.
The Ice Storm follows the Hoods and the Carvers (renamed
from the novel's Williamses, maybe in tribute to Raymond Carver)
as they dabble half-heartedly in trangression. Ben Hood (Kevin
Kline) is having a joyless affair with Janey Carver (Sigourney
Weaver); Ben's wife Elena (Joan Allen) is a shoplifter, as is
her gloomy daughter Wendy (Christina Ricci), who distracts herself
with Janey's horny sons Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd).
Their misery is intricate and intertwined. The worse they feel,
the worse they behave, which makes them feel even worse -- the
familiar vicious circle.
There's some humor in Ben's and Janey's idea of parental advice;
they're so clueless they'd be better off not telling their kids
anything. But sadness lurks beneath the humor. You sense that
the adults want to be good parents -- they've screwed up everything
else -- but they honestly don't know how, and this is the best
they can do. So the kids are already depressed and disillusioned.
Their awkward sexual experimentation mirrors the queasy wife-swapping
"key party," which is in full swing as the rain freezes
on the cars outside.
Lee has an impeccable cast. Kline makes Ben selfish, confused,
but still decent -- there's a touching image of Ben carrying
Wendy home through the wet, snowy woods -- and Allen, a great
and subtle actress, suggests flashes of ungovernable wildness
in Elena (what's up with that shoplifting?). And Christina Ricci,
passing into adulthood, is going to be a major reason to stay
interested in movies. All the characters' self-disgust seems
to crystallize in Wendy, and Ricci conveys it almost wordlessly.
The Ice Storm is a rich and elegant drama on its own,
but it will be remembered for Ricci's first adult role. That
the role is a 14-year-old girl only adds to the movie's poignance.
Kids couldn't stay kids for long even back in 1973. |