The Ice Storm
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Movie Reviews of The Ice Storm
Movie Review: One of the great forgotten films of the '90's...
Summary: 5 Stars
When Ang Lee's dark, brooding exploration of a family living in the 1970's was released in 1997, it had just as much against it as it did for it. For one, it was an American movie made by foreign director Ang Lee, and its depressing dramatic content had the capacity for being a love/hate experience (I recommended this film to a friend, and after viewing it, he called it the worst movie he'd ever seen!). On the other hand, Lee had made arguably the greatest Jane Austen adaptation ever two years previous ("Sense and Sensibility"), and famed critic Gene Siskel added to the buzz by calling it the #1 film of the year. So what's the verdict? Six years later, "The Ice Storm" shimmers in its cinematic precision, emotional complexity, and brutal honesty. In fact, this time period under the direction of Lee has its foreign sensibilities as a benefit, taking more risks and being ultimately more effective. The magnificence of "The Ice Storm" is by no means JUST Ang Lee's doing - stars Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci, and a smoldering Sigourney Weaver make you wonder why this film garnered no Oscar wins or nominations. On the surface, "The Ice Storm" looks to be overtly concerned with the sexual mores of the 1970's, and that is a great part of the film (who can forget Elijah Wood fooling around with Christina Ricci touting a Richard Nixon mask?). What we see, though, is the dramatic arc of two families that clash emotionally, sexually, and physically one weekend while on the verge of a (okay, blatantly metaphorical) ice storm that threatens some and claims the life of one. Lee and his actors handle certain moments with such quirky sensiblilites it's hard to dislike the movie (a scene where Weaver scolds Ricci for playing an "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" game comes to mind). Inevitably, though, the movie's dark overtones take full manifestation of the film in its final act, and that is where the true brilliance of "The Ice Storm" shines through. All of its compelling visuals, foreshadowed themes, and subplots synthesize to its unforgettable, somewhat ambiguous conclusion. THIS is where some people fall off the "Ice Storm" wagon. What is important about the film, though, and what makes it one of the great forgotten films of the '90's, is how the collective experience of the movie is more important than simply its conclusion. Too often, movies rely on a finale to tie up its loose ends and convince the viewer one last time to like it. You'll love "The Ice Storm" early on, for it's an unbelievable pleasure to simply sit and watch great filmmaking happen every frame of this fantastic, overlooked film.Movie Review: The chilling effects of 1973 in ANG LEE's "The Ice Storm"
Summary: 5 Stars
1973 was a turbulent year.President Richard Nixon was watching his administration dissolve into scandal and the culture of the time saw marriages breaking up more rapidly,free love expanding from the hippies to the suburbs,people were reading all of the numerous "self-help" books flooding the market,drugs were becoming middle and upper class norms,children were "latch-key" kids,everyone went to an "analyst" and every taboo was being broken.What the '60's started, the '70's completed.THIS IS THE MATERIAL of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" presented so finely tuned and so expertly executed that calling it a "subtle,tense nail-biter" is the only way that I can choose to describe this film.
Let me say this right now: this film IS NOT going to appeal or be understood by lots of viewers so I really cannot see why anyone would waste the time arguing about the film. I was 18 years old when this film takes place, and so for me it was a study in the time frame that shaped my late high school and early college days.That I know for a fact that my family experienced all of these chilling events that Ang Lee presents, chilled my 50 something soul down to and through the marrow of my bones.
If you recently saw ACROSS THE UNIVERSE in the theatre, then THE ICE STORM is what resulted from the Era that THAT film chronicled.
Two families are scrutinized in this 1970's study;actors Joan Allen and Kevin Kline with their children played by Christina Ricci and Tobey Maguire; and the other parents,Sigourney Weaver and Jamey Sheriden and their offspring Elijah Wood and Adam Hann-Byrd. Lee stalks these two families,their inner turmoils and inter-relations and brings all of these dysfunctionalities,(as it were mentioned above) to an "infected head" during a freak ice storm where one of them dies.That's all I am saying.This film is a master look at the Era and its well developed characters.You may like NONE of these characters,because we are not certain that they even like themselves.Nothing is left untouched or underdeveloped.Nothing that is exposed is covered up.MAN...WHAT A FILM! Only Ang Lee (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN,SENSE AND SENSIBILITY and the current LUST CAUTION) could pull this one off.
Mychael Danna (WATER) composed the soundtrack which is peppered liberally with top 40 tunes of the times.
I would recommend RUNNING WITH SCISSORS as an excellent companion film.
Movie Review: Coming of age film for adults in the 1970's ..... or ....
Summary: 5 Stars
is it another Ang Lee masterpiece film that takes the reluctant viewer on trip through time and tradgedy. Certainly you'll remember this film for years to come and probably you'll wonder what in the world was Ang Lee trying to tell us ....
In the comfortable hinterland of Connecticut we are presented with two families during a 1970's Thanksgiving weekend. It's the sexual revolution for the 30 to 40's crowd and the adults all seem to feel kind of special but really can't figure out why they are so so unhappy. They are totally, and I mean totally disconnected with their kids, and pretty well totally disconnected with each other as well.
Matter of fact the movie would be a wonder as an introductory psych class since each of the players has 'issues'. Ripley .... OOOPS I mean Sigourney Weaver treats sex like fast food and manages perhaps to be the best adjusted character in the movie, while her husband is an uptight inventor oblivious to both his chldren and his wife, the young son need major help as he tries to blow up everying in sight, has visions of blowing up his teacher and completely falls appart when he has the opportunity to play 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' with his older brother's girlfriend. ....
Kevin Kline character is married to a cold troubled cleptomaniac who gets the hots for a crazed funky preacher and really seems to bothered by everything around her .....
Needless to say, the poop finally hists the fan when one of the characters of friends decides to have a California style key party on the Thanksgiving weekend, in the middle of an ice storm, they all try to make it look so so normal ....HMMMM
Anyway, on it goes, certainly a very very unique film that is not everybody's fare, but, if you enjoy character studies and a strange trip down memory lane of reality, teenage sexual gropings in the backseat kind of thing and the tensions of unconnected marriages .. you'll love this film ...
Even though I gave the film 5 stars it's for the directing excellence not really because I like the film as much as some REAL Ang Lee masterpieces like 'The Wedding Banquet' and 'Eat Drink Man Woman' it was more like his 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' movie that almost made me vomit with it's stupidity ....
Movie Review: Best ordinary people movie since, well, Ordinary People
Summary: 5 Stars
Often made to stand alongside American Beauty or the evergreen Ordinary people in its depiction of ordinary people with extraordinary idiosynchrasies, Ice Storm clearly got drowned out by the Spacey/Benning combination in the late 90s. Which is a tad unjust. While it is anyone's guess which Kevin I'd go for on a regular day (Spacey, that is, instead of Kline) this movie also has Ang Lee at the top of his game turning in quite a captivating film. I know little about Connecticut, and even lesser about the town of New Cannan (where the movie is based), but the appeal of the movie, the nonchalant realism of its characters, and the theme of our daily facades with the simple human quirks behind them are all strikingly universal. This is an insight into the lives of married couples in small towns coping with adultery, drinking, wife swapping and indifferent children.
As almost any other of Lee's works (with the possible exception of Crouching Tiger) the narrative is subdued. The characters, too, are rather darker than typical Lee, bordering on murky almost. Some comedic moments, with varying success I might add, don't do much to take from a dour overall tone. You may be left feeling you eavesdropped into a suburban home, listening to actual tete-a-tetes among its inhabitants.
I noted that this has led some other reviewers to think of the performances/direction as "wooden", or Sigourney Weaver to have been "wasted", etc. But people with isseues - such as most of the characters in Ice Storm - have a way of becoming cold, pretentious, nervous in their attitudes. I appreciated that Lee does not make any effort to masquerade their emotions into some sort of heroic Hollywoodesque melodrama. Real people behave this way, I did not find it wooden at all.
The "1973-era nostalgia" may be a bit lost on me (has the world really changed that much?) but I'd say this is a marvellous movie nevertheless and definitely worth at least the rental dollar. Doesn't matter whether its characters were based in Connecticut, Cairns or Calcutta, the saga of human foibles is all the same.
Highly recommended for the discerning eye.
Movie Review: A Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I add my own comments to this review, I first want to quote a review I read in some book for this film:
"This film is based on Rick Moody's novel about Thanksgiving 1973 in a middle-class New England family, with adolescent children fumbling with puberty while their parents flounder in the backwash of the sexual revolution. Though expertly made and well acted, the film's characters are uptight and repellent, and the story is bleak and oversymbolic. More to be admired than enjoyed."
I read this "review" before seeing the movie and after watching it I can't help but think to myself...What was that guy smoking? "The Ice Storm" is directed by Oscar winning director Ang Lee (Best Director, 'Brokeback Mountain') and is just as good, if not better, than the movie he took home his Oscar for. This movie is no less than a masterpiece; It's got amazing performances, it has a very "American Beauty" feel to it. To say this film is more to be admired than enjoyed is idiotic. The movie stars Kevin Kline as Ben Hood, the father of a family all dealing with their own set of problems.
Son Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) has fallen in love with a beautiful girl named Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes), whom his friend (David Krumholtz, TV's "Numbers") has already started to move in on. Daughter Wendy (Christina Ricci) is a girl smack dab in the middle of that pubescent age where nothing is really off limits. His wife Elena (Joan Allen) is quiet and reserved longing for something more than she's getting in her marriage, which is mostly because Ben himself is having an affair with his neighbor Janey (Sigourney Weaver) who has also grown bored with Ben. In the course of one night, during a freak ice storm, all their lives will change forever. For some reason, two movies came to mind while watching this. American Beauty and Me & You & Everyone We Know. All three films have a strange quirkiness to them, but also manage to have the same dramatic impact. If you liked those two films, you should like this. This is a very entertaining film, very well made film that is one of Ang Lee's finest hours.
GRADE: A