I remember I kinda felt cold while watching it.. and what I really remember about it.. is that I discussed it the next day with my math teacher hehehehe =D
Here is a little story for you: After having suffered through two of the worst movies I have ever seen ("The Hulk" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") I made a vow to myself to NEVER watch a movie directed by Ang Lee again. Well, I broke that vow for a girl in a red poncho and a girl who loves the girl in the red poncho even more than I do. Was it worth breaking the vow?, damn right it was. "The Ice Storm" tells the story about two families and their problems, sure it sounds like any other 'fam-dram' (family drama) but this one has the girl in the red poncho (Christina Ricci) in one of her best roles ever (and that is really saying something) and some fine performances by Elijah Wood and Sigourney Weaver. I would give the movie a higher rating if the side story with Tobey Maguire was cut (really it adds nothing to the movie) and like many other dramas the ending feels dragged out. Still "The Ice Storm" is worth seeing for Ricci alone, but make sure this is the only Ang Lee movie you ever see.
Well, I really tried to get the point ... but to be honest, I HATED IT! xD
From the disturbedness of each and every character to the cruel background music, I really really hated it.
Apart from that it was quite good. ^.^
This is a heavy drama, but one definitely worth taking the time to see. The four lead adult roles are extremely well done, but itīs the teenagers angst and desperate attempts at maturation that really make the movie worth watching. Another triumph for Ang Lee.
This movie offers us that rare feat that is "the perfect cast". Ricci and Wood are probably the best actors here in my opinion. And I think much of its high quality has to do with Ang Lee being the director. Maybe I'll give Brokeback Mountain a try now.
I love movies that point the magnifying glass back at the 'normalcy' of suburban life. For anyone who thinks that marriage, kids, and a white picket fence are all you need to be happy, watch this film. It is an eye-opener and very well acted by all.
Beautiful film, can't believe it took me so long to see it, All the characters have such depth and the actors portray them wonderfully, there is so much in this movie that impresses from the symbolic irony of the ice storm to the beautiful Oriental sounding score, this should be up there with American Beauty.
So we've all seen a million shoddy soppy dull as fuck family dramas- the genre is full of garbage, that's just a fact. This one is not only the best of its genre, but I'd call it one of the greatest films ever. Set in Connecticut in the 1970's, 'The Ice Storm' follows two equally failed marriages and how the families' children become victims of their parents' drained depressing lives. There seems to be a predominant focus on the relationships between the unfulfilled stressed parents and their reserved nerdy teenage children. Weaver, Allen and Maguire are excellent, and goddess Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood form the most talented movie partnership in film history. The characters are perfectly defined by the beautiful script, the visuals are amazing and the themes are meticulously and poetically explored, to extents which other dramas can only envy. If I could rate it 6 stars I would, if just for that lush red poncho of Ricci's. Absolutely phenomenal, and in no way a reflection of Ang Lee's other work...
Ang Lee's emotional drama is not strong on plot but the acting is brilliant. A terrific cast is on offer here with everyone involved acting their socks off. It's hard to pinpoint the best performance here but the always great Joan Allen, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood and Tobey Maguire are on top form.
Not a bad movie. A darker look at the American dream and what happens when 'keeping up with the Jones' isn't all it is cracked up to be.
if anything about this film should really appeal to you though it is the amazing cast. With great performances and a pretty emotional ending, it is definalty worth a look.
Before Ang Lee gave us gay cowboys eating pudding he directed this exploration of the early 1970s sexual revolution in suburban New England in an archetypal tale of the American nuclear family in decline. This movie is based on the book of the same name by Rick Moody. The story centers around the (the following is excerpted from Amazon) "Hood and Williams families, neighboring two-parent, two-child households built around increasingly dysfunctional marriages. Benjamin Hood, plagued by a loss of importance at work and a growing drinking problem, pursues an ill-fated affair with Janey Williams; his wife, Elena, feels herself losing what little regard she has left for him. Meanwhile, the adolescent children of both families experiment with sex, alcohol and drugs to find identities and to overcome a ponderous sense of alienation. A neighborhood "key party," at which couples exchange mates by drawing keys out of a bowl, brings the action to a chaotic climax as an apocalyptic winter storm culminates in physical tragedy to match the emotional damage in the small community." The writing, direction, and performances in this film are nothing short of superb.
Best Quotes:
"In issue #141 of the Fantastic Four, published in November 1973, Reed Richards has to use his anti-matter weapon on his own son, who Annihulus has turned into a human atom bomb. It was a typical predicament for the Fantastic Four because they weren't like other super heroes. They were more like a family, and the more power they have, the more harm they could do to each other without even knowing it. That was the meaning of The Fantastic Four, that a family is like your own personal anti-matter. Your family is the void you emerge from and the place you return to when you die. And that's the paradox, the closer your drawn back in the deeper into the void you go."
"Ben, you're boring me. I have a husband. I don't particularly feel the need for another."
'The Ice Storm' is an incredibly bleak and dark film set in the 70s about two connected families during the holiday break of Thanksgiving. The first family consists of Ben (Kevin Kline) and Elena (Joan Allen), and their two kids -- 16-year-old Paul (Tobey Maguire) just home from boarding school, and 14-year-old Wendy (Christina Ricci) a wannabe anti-war/anti-Nixon elitist who is coming to terms with her own sexuality. The second family consists of Janey (Sigourney Weaver) whom Ben is having an affair with, her husband Jim (Jamey Sheridan), and their two boys -- the neurotic intro-vert Mikey (Elijah Wood) and his younger shy pyro-maniac brother Sandy (AdamN Hann Byrd). The film takes place during Thanksgiving day and the day after in the lives of these people -- including Ben and Elena's marriage being put to the test at a swinger's party with Janey and Jim, Paul's love conquest in New York City with a girl from boarding school named Libbets (Katie Holmes), and Wendy's sexual misadventures with Mikey and Sandy both.
'The Ice Storm' is an incredibly powerful and relevant ensemble piece about the complexity of family and relationships both sexual and non-sexual. Ang Lee once again proves he is a director of great skill and exquisite understanding of human emotions, and James Schamus provides a harrowing and painfully realistic screenplay. Kevin Kline delivers yet another near-flawless dramatic performance, while Sigourney Weaver is great in her interesting yet limited role. The children of the ensemble cast (Maguire, Byrd, Wood, Ricci, Holmes, Krumholtz) are all excellent, especially Christina Ricci who owns her role. However, the real scene-stealer in my eyes is the marvelous Joan Allen who plays her role with such intensity and elegance that I'm shocked she didn't receive a Best Actress Oscar Nomination.
In conclusion, 'The Ice Storm' is a powerful little movie that's interesting yet not exciting. It isn't groundbreaking by any standards, but it's incredibly well-made. 'The Ice Storm' was totally ignored at the '98 Oscar Ceremony, but that comes to no enormous surprise. It was competing in the same year 'L.A. Confidential', 'Boogie Nights', 'Amistad', 'The Sweet Hereafter', 'As Good as It Gets' and the dreadfully overrated 'Titanic' were. A small little character study like 'The Ice Storm' didn't stand a chance. If you can appreciate a movie like this, I highly recommend this oldie I just got around to seeing. Grade: A-
artistic film about the 70s and families with problems. you sympathize with kevin kline, though you don't condone his behavior. elijah wood's character is weird. basically. actually, there isn't a character in the film that doesn't have an eerie side.
I was reminded of American Beauty when I watched this. It had pretty much the same thing of decay taking place beneath a veneer of stability and routine. Poignant is one way to describe this film, which takes its time to unravel the bandages of boredom and decline which are suffocating its characters.
The Ice Storm is a dissection of suburban life with a `winter storm' . It has a great cast and for that reason it can't simply focus on one character. If one sub-plot reaches a climax they quickly switch over to another story, so it's observational but not participatory. Despite the fact that there are a number of different characters, they all manage to nicely develop.....
Kline shows his acting range here and does well as the sleazy, cheating husband. This is a good surprise.....
In one of Allen's breakthrough roles she also shows her acting depth and gives a very humane performance.....
Weaver is delightful is a super bitch.....
The youger actors are every bit as good in their roles aswell. Tobey Maguire does well as the hormone driven son. Christina Ricci is also good as a 14-year-old seductress, and Elijah Wood is great.....
The Ice Storm is very true to life in its vision of adult and adolescent life. The film does end a bit too suddenly....
Overall, The Ice Storm is a impressive and underrated film.
Hrm...a sexually confident and in-control woman gets cruelly punished by fate for sleeping around. Gosh, that's not a disgusting and reactionary theme, no sir!
this is a fascinating film about adolescence and adulthood. How hypocritical and childlike parents can be. this is a film about children not knowing how to grow up and adults wanting desperately to regain their youth. Setting it in the Watergate 70's makes it even the much more perfect. Really not much more you can say about this overlooked gem.
MCT:August 28, 2008
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