The Ice Storm

Love the ability to rent videos from Amazon because I can often find the ones that I want to see that are not on Netflix.

The Ice Storm is easily among the most dead-on and tragic family dramas ever made. Very much in the same vein as American Beauty, The Squid and the Whale, Happiness, and Ordinary People, The Ice Storm examines the dark underbelly of suburban life. It follows people so bored with their lives that they knowingly succumb to dangerous behavior that could only spell trouble. Having witnessed this strange phenomenon firsthand, The Ice Storm is shockingly realistic and bleak. Usually, films that take place in the 1970s take full advantage of all of the decade's more fun and outrageous qualities (Dazed and Confused), but this film is totally unsentimental and uses its backdrop of a Watergate-shaken America as more of symbolic precursor to the unrest that inhabits the world the characters live in. The actual ice storm is a clever metaphor for the destructive nature of the characters lives and events only seem to get worse when they venture outside the comfort of their homes and into the storm. Instead of some quirky, self-indulgent director (Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Todd Solondz) taking on this kind of material that would seem suited for them, Ang Lee, someone who is maybe not as obviously 'right' for the story, completely knocks it out of the park. His shots are perfectly framed, his style is not intrusive (excellent choice for the story), he gets the tone spot-on, and his production design team is brilliant. Disillusionment is a pretty strong theme and something that all of the characters have in common, so the performances are pretty subtle and reserved in their emotional displays. Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, and Sigourney Weaver are all amazing and Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd, and Katie Holmes manage to outshine the stellar adult cast with performances that prove there are child actors who can handle and even sometimes dominate serious roles in serious films. The score is certainly an oddity, consisting of what sounds like new age meditation music. Thankfully, it fits the quiet tone of the movie very well. Everything taken into consideration, The Ice Storm is one of the most criminally overlooked movies ever. As far as serious, smart, and bold family dramas go, it doesn't get much better than this.

A haunting, yet funny, pitch perfect examination of middle class existence in USA during close of Nixon era fleshed out with a superb ensemble cast with particular strength in the direction of the younger members. Some funny moments include the Carver's 8' wide water bed. Jim returns home to find wife Jaynee (Ms Weaver) reading, fully clothed with back turned on her (distant) side. Jim plops down and Jaynee is almost washed overboard. But he repeats the exercise! This time Ms Weaver is bounced into the air. She is NOT amused! Meanwhile, younger son Sammy is out blowing up his toys or using a cowhide whip, whipping the buds off the nearest rose bush. The older boy, Mikey (Elijah Wood) trying to do it to Wendy (Ms Ricci) who is wearing a Nixon mask as he does so. Wendy has other hilarious scenes as well: when asked to say Grace on Thanksgiving with her mother Helena (Ms Alllen) father Benjamin (Mr Kline) brother Paul (Mr Maguire) in attendance she launches into a political diatribe about how America stole from the Indians, bombed Vietnam whilst gorging themselves at Thanksgiving (etc). And, when her mother starts reminiscing about the innocence of her girlhood days, Wendy says " Are you all right Mum?". Benjamin's (Mr Kline's) attempt to talk about "the birds and the bees" to his 16 year old son Paul is frankly hilarious. True there is one truly squirmmaking scene - the key party - and the ending of the film is immensely moving, certainly, to every parent it must touch a deep chord.But I think the rich humour of the film is often overlooked. It is at the same time, very funny, very sad, and very moving. One of the few movies I know that is complex enough in tone to be able to be called a tragi-comedy. Brilliant. Brilliant work.

I couldn't get past the heedlessness of the characters toward a forecasted ice storm. Nary a one alters his or her outing, parents permit their offspring to take interstate trains, and characters sober up by going for a leisure drive during the worst of it. The storm works as a symbol (perhaps unintentionally on the part of the author) of the inability of the characters to foresee just about everything, which is an insulting statement on the intelligence of people in the 70s. Even Sigourney Weaver's character feels dejected after relishing her liberation--which I'm sure pleases some critics, but in reality is just trite.

The story was ok, the Writer and Director missed the opportunity to celebrate the human experience, hetero sexual nude sex scenes. That would have made this movie more interesting, memorable and exciting. I suggest that Movie Writers, Director s study the formula for successful rate R movies " Fatal Attraction" "Basic insticts" and "50 shades of Grey". It really is a win win for everyone.

This is a visually gorgeous indie film with an incredible cast and a mature screenplay. Ang Lee's greatest film, in my opinion.

If you love feeling cold and isolated, this movie is for you. Gorgeous cinematography - edited like a haiku - and understated pitch perfect performances.All in service of feeling awful.

I love Ang Lee and this movie is no exception to this others. The setting is in the 70's, and the rapidly declining morals of society are entwined in this movie. Kevin Kline and Joan Allen lead a family that is falling apart. On a night in New England, as they go to a party that ends up a swinging party, the land becomes a crystal vision of ice and snow and wind. I will forever see in my mind the beauty of the ice frozen on trees and how every aspect of nature is dripping in a diamond view of nature. The ice storm is symbolic. The frozen world and the frozen marriage of the couple plus the failure as parents that seem to just not improve is all in this symbolism. This movie is not for action hounds. The drama is for those who like a movie to make one think.

I remember seeing this at the cinema and likes the film. It’s one of those films you can easily watch on a Sunday afternoon in the Autumn or Winter and it has two now very famous actors in it, who although very young in this acted really well. The kids behave just as dysfunctionally in a suburban setting, as do the adults. I think this is a clever film for what it is. Also I got this very fast from the company that sold it to me. You can’t get this in Blu Ray or you can’t get it at a price you would expect either, which is a pity, because the director is now a pretty famous director. This is a very over looked film that should be looked at more.

This exquisite, bleakly raw, terribly sad film was directed in 1997 by the great Ang Lee, after Sense And Sensibility, and just before the brilliant Ride With The Devil. And what a cast it has, some of whom were fairly obscure or unknown back then. Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood and Katie Holmes are all seen at their best in early roles, and there is also a telling cameo by Allison Janney - The West Wing`s immortal CJ Cregg.It`s the early 70s, Nixon is still president by the skin of his lying teeth, and the well-heeled residents of suburban Connecticut are sleepwalking into affairs with their neighbours` wives and husbands, attending what would now be called swingers` parties, and virtually ignoring their dislocated, empty-eyed offspring. Welcome to the blank new `lost generation` of the soured American Dream.Kevin Kline, all coiffed hair and blandly neat clothes, is married to flint-eyed Joan Allen (excellent as always) though their marriage is crawling half-heartedly onto the rocks. Kline drifts into a loveless affair with their friend Sigourney Weaver - a bravely cynical, passive portrayal of a bored femme fatale by this fine actress - while the various children of both couples have begun to experiment, innocently yet with a cool lack of emotion for the most part, with their physical stirrings.Slowly but very surely (with Ang Lee one is invariably in safe cinematic hands) events spiral out of everyone`s control, leading to an almost casually depicted tragedy. The families are numbly united, no doubt a little wiser, and life, one is left to assume, goes on. It is a poignant, diffident denouement to what seems in hindsight something of a parable, though it never moralises, which is part of its strength and poetic truth. Life is hanging like one of the winter icicles, by a cold, transient thread, the future happiness of all concerned tentative at best.The way the emotional and sexual lives of the parents are juxtaposed with those of the children is done with subtlety and tact, while sparing use is made of Mychael Danna`s suitably lean musical soundtrack. Certain images linger: the night train carrying home Tobey Maguire at a standstill in a winter `wonderland`, more like a ghost train from a Stephen King story (we`re in the right part of the world, too); Sigourney Weaver, after one too many meaningless adulteries, curled foetus-like half-in & half-out of her bed; city rich-kid Katie Holmes` drugged eyes before she passes out, the viewer fearful of how she will cope with whatever lies ahead; and the ominously long whip Weaver shoves at her son to `play with`, that is echoed much later, and much more ominously, in a jolting `whip` of electric wires...This has been described as a comedy-drama, and in a way it is, but the comedy is mostly dark and chill, the drama close to Greek tragedy.A very fine film, worth seeing more than once.

Excellent film, one of Ang Lee's early gems and excellent performances from all, especially the young trio of Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci & Elijah Wood.The DVD however is not great, it's a French language version - there is an alternative English language option but you can't turn off the French subtitles!

This film is a must have for anyones collection. Wonderfully directed by Ang Lee this film depicts America in the 1970's and its sexual liberation. Sigourny Weaver and Kevin Kline play neighbours having an affair. Whilst their marriages are clearly on the ropes their children are mixed up too indulging in 'games' that are a little too grown up for them. The Ice Storm comes and with it an event that changes everyones lives and provides an opportunity to reflect on what they have all become. This is a film that tells a story in an adult way. It doesnt dumb it down to cater for the masses. Its moving, intense and above all powerful. Add this to your collection now!

I remember first watching this film when I was working in the US, living in New York at the time. Keven Kline and Sigourney Weaver are both excellent as the rather dysfunctional husband and wife team and the actor playing their son, who is upset by his parent's quarrels, does a good job at portraying the emotion turmoil a young teenager can experience in such a situation. The film is also very reflective of the social era it portrays - the rather loose sexual mores, the wife swapping parties, the heavy drinking - and so should be seen for this alone. Also of note are the incredible ice storm scenes and the tragic scene that this brings about in the couple's life.