The Ice Storm

Rating:
Summary: Movie is deeply insightful
Review: I won't ruin anything by telling you that the first few words of the movie must be kept in mind when watching the film, and it will all make sense. Deeply resonant and powerful comparison of two families, one which is skimming the line between connecting and disconnecting, the other which has just slightly disconnected. It's about people trying so hard to connect. Just beautiful. I've watched it many times, so it's good for those of you who repeatedly watch films.

Rating:
Summary: scathing!!! the best film of the year...
Review: This film is an intense examination of the effect of the sexual revolution on suburban America. Be prepared for over the top performances by Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Christina Ricci's performance as the prepubescent town-slut is elcetrifying. A must see!!! One of my favorites, dark, moody and beautiful. Probably Ang Lee's best film!

Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: First before I go off on this movie the acting was quite excellent. 2 questions to ask yourself before buying this. Will there be a plot? Is an ending a good thing to have? Answer number one: This movie had no plot jumping from one thing to the next for no reason. The comic books in the movie have more plot. The only thing that made this movie go along was that the train had a schedule. Please have a sequel to end this movie since there isn't one now. A final question is do we need teenaged nimphomaniacs. NO. My god I might have rated this movie a 3 if it weren't for that. If you don't think those were good answers to those questions well put in the context of a movie and you have Ice Storm

Rating:
Summary: The True Great film of 1997
Review: It isn't too often that we find ourselves completely swept away by a movie that doesn't rely on Beautiful landscapes or emotionally unrealistic moments to attract its audience. Ang Lee has shared a great vision with us bu making this film. Although I did not live through the seventies, I related to the characters in a more intimate way than ever before and I believe that the very subtle and excellent performances had a lot to do with that. Sigourney Weaver is at her absolute best, and look for great performances from Kevin Kline, Elijah Wood, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and Joan Allen. This film should not only have been nominated for an oscar (instead of either "Titanic", "Good Will Hunting", or "As Good As it Gets") but it should have won every award there is to give. A truly remarkable adaptation from the novel, and quite an unforgettable film.

Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding
Review: I thought this movie was well-writen and deserves an A+. The acting was superb! And not just one or two of the actors. All of them. THE ICE STORM is definitely a must-see movie.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant, haunting film about family angst.
Review: Director Ang Lee has created a hypnotic, visually dazzling movie about two families emotionally adrift during the changing mores of the early 1970s. While parents aimlessly search for anything to give their lives meaning, they ignore the desperate needs of their own children, with tragic results. Great performances from Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver as two very different mothers and from Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci as two of their adrift children. The actual ice storm is so beautifully introduced and photographed that it actually becomes a memorable character in itself--one to be reckoned with and to be healed from. The movie ends with a profound scene of father-son connection that is emotionally overwhelming and defines all the events that precede it. Destined for classic status. END

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Films of 1997
Review: "The Ice Storm" was one of the most haunting and visually hypnotic films of 1997. The entire cast turn in excellent performances, especially the young cast which include Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Katie Holmes and Elijah Wood. One of the most impressive performances was from Sigourney Weaver as Janey Carver. She had a small but pivitol role which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination and British Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. I was very disappointed that not only her but others in the cast were overlooked when it came to the Oscar nominations in 1997. The whole issue around family suburbia during the sexual revelution was very well presented on film due to Ang Lee's superb direction. Even though Ang Lee didn't receive the well-deserved recognition for his direction of this film, he would go on to earn a nomination for "Sense & Sensibility". "The Ice Storm" also earned the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival but no Oscar-nomination. I highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a visually haunting film with impressive performances from an excellent ensemble cast.

Rating:
Summary: the ice storm
Review: There is this family. It's cold and there is an ice storm.
Everybody is so self absorbed that they forget to feed the dog.
The dog gets pissed off and kills the entire family. The dog runs outside and slips on the ice.

Rating:
Summary: Icy and beautiful
Review: I, personally, was not alive in 1973. But the immensely underrated Ang Lee gives a glimpse into the 1970s suburbia when society went through a dramatic shift. A good thing? Don't be so sure. Lee strips away the illusions to reveal the loneliness and coldness in the wake of the sexual revolution.

The Carvers and the Hoods live next door to each other in an affluent suburban neighborhood. On the surface, all is well. But self-absorbed Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) is having an affair with the icy Janie Carver (Sigourney Weaver). Similarly, his precocious daughter Wendy (Christina Ricci) is "experimenting" with Janey's sons, the spacey Mikey (Elijah Wood). To make things worse, Ben's wife Elena (Joan Allen) is experiencing a bit of a crisis herself -- she suspects her husband is cheating on her, and she longs for the freedom and lack of care she had before her marriage.

After Ben finds Wendy and Mikey in a compromising position with a Nixon mask, and Elena clues in about Janey, the parents venture to what turns out to be a wife-swapping key party (the women take men's car keys out of a bowl and go home with covers New Canaan, their relationships will reach boiling point... and a tragedy will unfold.

I don't know how common these attitudes were in the 1970s, but undoubtedly they were a lot more common than people would like to remember. Such things as key parties seem almost alien now. Tobey Maguire's Paul Hood serves a vital function in this movie -- he's very normal, not into any sort of transitional weirdness (except pot smoking) and so can serve as an alter ego for the viewers.

Lee did a good job not just with the exquisite direction and the camerawork. He also doesn't overemphasize the sudden shifts in what was allowed and what wasn't -- in one scene, the adults calmly discuss watching "Deep Throat." As they speak, there's the nervous awareness that it was unacceptable for upper-middle-class suburbanite not long ago. They have drugs, free love, self-seeking... and they don't have the slightest clue what to do with it.

Lee overdoes it a little with the ice metaphors. The dead leaves and trees were a lot better. But he does do an expert job showing why loveless sex and distant families will only leave a person lonely. The families here talk a lot, but they don't speak. Even a simple question like "How's school?" or "What are you doing?" is enough to weird out the kids -- that's how far they are from their parents. Wood's only statement in the "making of" sums this up: "The parenting is just... it's all WHACKED!"

He tempers all this heavy stuff with humor, such as Janey coldly telling Ben that she doesn't need "another husband" prattling golf stories at her, or Mikey's comical confusion when Wendy offers to get intimate while wearing a Nixon mask. There are a lot of "seventies" things sprinkled through the movie, from the makeup to the toe socks (toe socks?), the TV shows, the hair, the clothes (Weaver's zippered jumpsuit, for example). But Lee doesn't really smack you in the face with it.

Kevin Kline is as good a serious actor as he is a comic one. When someone leers that he wishes people had brought their young daughters to the key party, Kline's expression is worth a thousand words. Weaver is always outstanding as a very cold woman who still has some affection for her kids; Allen is excellent as a woman whose feelings are bubbling past her icy exterior. Ricci mixes sophistication and vulnerability as the Nixon-obsessed Wendy. And Wood gives off a sort of ethereal feel as the spacey but sweet Mikey, a boy obsessed by molecules.

The DVD doesn't have much in the way of extras. There is the theatrical trailer. And there is a featurette about the "making of," with commentary from Ang Lee, author Rick Moody, the scriptwriter, and then from Kline, Allen, Weaver, and (don't blink or you might miss it) from Ricci and Wood. And a few tips on synthesizing an ice storm. Not spectacular, but good enough.

This is far from a feel-good movie, but it gives some undefined views into human nature, what is good for us and what isn't. Ang Lee took what could have been a disaster, and made it as cold and beautiful as an ice storm.

Rating:
Summary: I guess I'd add a 1/2 a star if I could, but....
Review: Before I start, just let me say that I've noticed that people generally either REALLY like this film or REALLY don't. I think I'm one of the rare "somewhere-in-beweens." That said:

I know I'm supposed to view this film as an incredibly artful depiction of the moral dissolution of the 1970s, but I have a very hard time seeing too much beyond an insipid plot constructed around the sexual exploits of characters whose only real tragidy is that their libidos are larger than their IQs.
I suppose the point here is, "Gee, get out of bed with your neighbor long enough to watch your kids..." I'm trying not to use terms like "duh," "disgusting," and "Stooooopid!" but honestly they are the only ones that come to mind regarding the pinheaded "theme" of this film.

Now, the acting...all of it is good; but the most interesting thing to me was how far the youngest members of the cast(Toby Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, and the boy who plays Elijah's younger brother) absolutely outshine the performances of the likes of Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Christina Ricci in particular put in an Oscar-worthy performance as a 14-year old girl in severe psychic pain. She illicits every range of emotion from the viewer--pity, disgust, righteous indignation, tenderness. She was only 17 when she did this film and she did everything right.

I initially became interested in this film looking through Elijah Wood's filmography and I AM glad I saw it...will it go down as a memorable experience for me? Probably not. It portrays an era that was considered "flavorless" (don't yell, I grew up during that decade myself) and unfortunately the film came off pretty flavorless too.