The Ice Storm
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.82 You Save: $6.16 (62%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.55 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Ice Storm
Movie Review: Frozen Hearts
Summary: 5 Stars
After the huge success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", audiences are watching closely Ang Lee's works, but they should better see his previous works, like this "The Ice Storm", to find out that his latest is not a fluke. By the way, this film is one of the most underrated film of 1997."The Ice Storm" follows a couple of days in the lives of two ordinary American families which happen to be very related in many senses. In 1973, these people will experience love, discoveries, pain and death. The `70s are known as the decade of the dialogue, but the film is very silent and the characters don't talk very much. Sometimes, when a problem does not have a solution the only thing to do is stay quiet. And they do it all the time.
The movie tackles subject very common by that time. All the characters seem to be dealing with sex somehow. The teens are starting to touch their bodies and also their friends'. The adults look so bored that having sex is meaningless no matter whom they do with. Even a `car key party' does not help them to feel much more excited.
Lee's direction is discreet and effective. The photography goes very fine with the temperature of the characters' feelings. It's so effective that even you being in your warming home can feel the cold breeze freezing your skin. It's frightening to see how damaging frozen water can be. Michael Danna's score helps to make the audience feels cold, as the people in the movie. The cast is flawless, mainly Chistina Ricci, Tobey Maguire and Elijah Wood. The script wirtten by David Schamus-- based upon Rick Moody's novel --was awarded in Cannes and is very impressive -- even tough some of the most painful parts of the novel were left out.
The title ice storm that falls nearly the end of the picture is merciless. And its results, devastating. It seems to reach every character's heart somehow. Nevertheless, there are no easy solutions -- or even any solution -- to the edgy situation they are living. So they will have to live with their frozen hearts forever. The closing sequence is a punch in the stomach. And David Bowie's "I Can't Read" makes this punchs be even harder.
Movie Review: Icicles
Summary: 5 Stars
It's ironic that the warmest and most humane of movie directors, Ang Lee ("Sense and Sensibility," "Brokeback Mountain") is the director of the icy-cold (weather, of course and tone) and surgically precise "The Ice Storm."
Lee's innate humanity makes itself known in his handling of the characters here: he never judges, he never points a finger...he shows, he doesn't tell. It is a slippery slope though as the Rick Moody source material veers towards condemnation of this particularly randy and supposedly "swinging" group of mid 1970's couples and their children.
The wasp adults: a cold, cold, man-eating Sigourney Weaver as Janey Carver, a very sad but trying to be hip and lacking the wherewithal to pull it off, Joan Allen as Elena Hood and a "not-there" Jamey Sheridan and pseudo-hip but really just horny Kevin Kline as their respective husbands Jim Carver and Ben Hood...form the odd quartet of 30 somethings, probably used-to-be 60's hippies either in deed but most likely just in thought. Both couples have two children: also in various stages of rebellion and angst.
The signature scene in "The Ice Storm" is the Key Party: a ritual party in which the husbands put their keys in a bowl and at the party's close, the women pick a set of keys thereby choosing the man with whom they will have sex that night.
Lee's camera swoops and swirls around all the guests as we catch snippets of conversations: affairs are concluded, gossip is exchanged, discrete and not so discrete flirting happens, much liquor is consumed and gallons of white lipstick is applied...Lee let's us in on all of it. And he does it without rancor, without an agenda and always with his patented warmth and love.
Arguably the best film of 1997 ("The Sweet Hereafter" is it's equal that year also), "The Ice Storm" is ultimately a tragedy of Classical Greek proportions: the world of this film is icy cold as are many of its inhabitants but Ang Lee's blazing humanity warms and soothes revealing an open wound of despair, indecision and loneliness.
Movie Review: What we've got here is failure to communicate
Summary: 5 Stars
I adore discovering "forgotten" or little talked about movies from time to time, whether on television, videoclub or old movie theaters. "Ice storm" is one of them. It's simply a hidden gem.
Quite everything and everyone seems to be disfunctional in this movie: Nixon's presidential reign, the family, the parents-children relationships, the coming of age. Not a single character seems to be happy, enjoy himself or having a good time; even in the few funny scenes one doesn't have the feeling that the characters involved in it are getting some pleasure. Their actions aren't simply motivated by the need for sex or their abundant libido; there's a glaring shared desperation for communication between them which seems to be paralyzed by their own dullness and unhappines. There's a cold relationship between almost all of them: the children have no real connection with their parents, the adults on their side having so much problems with each other, agenda oblige.
Every child character seems in desperate need for love, communication and comprehension: "I love you", says one of them. "That's sweet...are you drunk?" answers the other. Every adult character seems unsatisfied with his/her empty life, always in search of what is missing, although they don't seem to know what is missing in their existences. After having consumed an adulterous physical intercourse, one of the characters begins to talk about a serious subject (one of the few times in the movie). "You're boring me...I already have a husband!" answers the other.
This is the tale of some common human beings desperately wanting to love and be loved, and yet permanently in anger, trying to drown their desperation and emotional drought in shoplifting, extra-conjugal relationships or blowing model planes up in flight. "The ice storm" is the undeniable truth with an inevitable ending, no matter what games adults and children play; the ice storm is beautiful and menacing in its beauty, as one of the characters, marvelled by this beauty, succumbs to it.
Movie Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
Quite simply one of the most elegant works in cinematic history. Ang Lee has proven himself to be one of the most versatile and sensitive directors in modern cinema. The treatment of the story is subtle and heartbreaking-- you feel so deeply for these characters, who all move through life in a dazed state of isolation, unaware of how damaging this calculated lack of connection can be. All these characters share in common a fear of vulnerability that robs them of the fulfillment of their most basic human needs-- the love and companionship of others.
In this way, the themes are similar to "Happiness"-- but the storytelling in "The Ice Storm" deals more with disconnectedness and less with shame and self loathing, so it is much easier to watch ("Happiness" is a movie I think most people only see once). Every character in this film is a perfect whole, while not all even likable (particularly Sigourney Weaver's character, Janey), their imperfections breathe life into each portrait. The ensemble cast is riveting.
There are definite elements that may upset some-- such as the open presentation of childhood sexuality. Be prepared to be painfully reminded of your own tentative and awkward first steps toward adulthood, or what most kids think of as adulthood-- i.e.
sexual relations. "The Ice Storm" deals with this with sensitivity and dignity, which is a refreshing change from the sexualization of children so prevalent in the media, which has the distasteful undertones of serving up innocents for the consumption of adults. The kids in this movie are learning about themselves within the realm of other kids, the way we all experienced it.
This is simply one of the best films I've ever seen.
Movie Review: Oscar Sleeps Again!
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Ang Lee has never made the same movie twice. He's given us a lighthearted gay comedy ("The Wedding Banquet"), Jane Austen fiction ("Sense and Sensibility"), martial arts fantasy ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), and comic book fare (2003's "The Incredible Hulk"). Here, he challenges the stereotypes and conventions of suburbia in the sorely underrated 1997 drama "The Ice Storm," which is just as witty and incisive as its Oscar winning counterpart "American Beauty." The year is 1973, and the location is New Caanan, Connecticut, where two neighboring families slowly fall apart at the seams due to indifference, infidelity, and neglect. As an ice storm breaks out, tragedy strikes, forcing both families to unite and examine their lives and prior behavior. I saw the storm as some sort of symbol, creating a signal for both families that trouble is on the way, and neither family even realized it. Without revealing spoilers, the cast is near-perfect. Kevin Kline and Joan Allen work well together as a couple struggling with their marriage while raising their kids (which include the usually good Christina Ricci). Sigoruney Weaver is also in fine form, as are Elijah Wood, Tobey Maguire, and Katie Holmes. The film perfectly captures the mood and flavor of the 1970s without making too-obvious references, and director Ang Lee triumphs by moving the film at a good pace. In contrast to "American Beauty," this film may be a wee too dry for some tastes, but the story slowly builds to a climax that's worth your while. Quite simply, this is a "Storm" worth getting caught in, and it merits your attention. One of the best films of the 1990s.