The Ice Storm (1997)

Suburban angst is explored in this complex and puzzling film by Ang Lee based on Rick Moody's novel. The film revolves around 8 characters, two families each with two teenaged children. The way that the characters react and intertwine is paramount to the theme of alienation and despair that encases the film's view of bourgeois vapidity. We see a world coming apart, families coming unglued and life slipping into the void and yet, this is all done with subtle action and stunning visuals. Although there is a dramatic climax in the film, Lee's subtlety and his myopic vision serve to make this film a restrained and intense masterpiece. The film has almost no emotional outbursts, no physical altercations and virtually no dramatic eruptions. It's smooth tone lulls us into the film and serves to remind us of exactly what Lee is discussing here. It is also noteworthy that when the climax of the film does come, it is almost silent. It is a heart-stopping, desperate, extreme moment that solidifies the emptiness and hopelessness of the film. It is extremely important that this moment is a fluke, a random incident, yet it holds significant implications.

To understand the film, we must understand the time it is set, the early to mid-70's. Wisely, an exact year isn't given. We only have an idea of the time by the world events which are shown, namely speeches by Nixon and mentions of Vietnam and Watergate. What's important here is that these topics are only addressed by the youth in the film, the adults are too caught up in their own personal little dramas to shown any concern for such national concerns. And this is one of the paradoxes the film explores. While the world unravels politically, signifying the final nail in American idealism's coffin (the first being JFK's assassination), the adults are unconcerned, obsessing instead on their sexuality, stunted by numerous dysfunctions. Meanwhile, the youth, also fascinated and exploring their own sexuality have these world concerns on their mind.

Also important is the adult's (parent's) lack of understanding in their children's new found sexuality. They act upset and controlling about it when they are in actuality as confused and as ignorant about sexuality as the youth. When the parent do attempt to have a reasonable discussion about it, they come across as incomprehensible (Sigourney Weaver's speech to Christina Ricci), or naive and ridiculous (Kevin Kline's "talk" to Tobey Maguire) or, at best, patriarchal concerned laced with naivity (as in Kline's talk with Ricci). But worse of all, they are shown to be hypocrites. They have no business giving any advice to any of the children. They are as confused as the pubescents in the film about sex and actually know little to nothing of it themselves.

Sexually, the adults in the film have numerous problems. Kline is lost and egotistical when it comes to his sexuality. He is married yet engages in an affair with Weaver. His wife, Joan Allen, is shown to be frigid and moralistically self- righteous. We can understand why Kline might go elsewhere yet he has no idea how to satisfy or even sexually deal with Weaver's lost soul. She is searching for something, but she knows not what. Finally, we see her as utterly hopeless sexually when even a young man cannot fulfill her. When her husband, Jamey Sheridan, is revealed to be a premature ejaculator, we understand her wanderlust. Sadly and realistically, none of these issues are really resolved at the film's end. We wonder if the traumatic events of the film's climax will have the resonance to bring these families together. We are left, at the end of the film, to wonder what might happen next. We must wonder what the film's climax really means and whether it signifies the beginning of resolution or the death toll of the families involved.

The youth in the film are marvellous characters. Ricci's open and explorative Wendy engages in sensual situation with reckless abandon. She seems to be on a mission to discover her body and her self. She might be the only character in the film truly sure of what she really wants; Yet her inquisitiveness is squelched at every turn. And while this may be in her best interest, she seems too obsessed with her sexuality to explore it wisely, it mainly serves to explore the adults hypocrisy. Ricci's bother, Paul, played by Tobey Maguire is just as inquisitive as she yet his nice guy is unable to take advantage of the most obvious opportunity to have a sexual interlude (which would only cause him guilt later on, anyway). He acts as a sort of narrator here and through him we understand how unnatural all of the other character's sexuality really is.

Ricci, meanwhile, interacts with two brothers, Elijah Wood's Mikey and Adam Hann-Byrd's Sandy. Hann-Byrd is a frightened innocent yet his character, like many young boys, is interested not mainly in sex, but in destruction. We struggle to understand what the implications of Ricci's advances and seduction of him really mean, whether it is healthy or damaging to his psyche. The struggle to understand ends when, at the climax of the film, Sandy flinches as Wendy approaches him, only to realize that he has nothing to fear from her; She only wants to comfort him. Conversely, Wood is shown to be caught at the cusp of the sexual revolution. Mikey is at the beginning of a teenage odyssey into sex and drugs. His character is shown to be searching as well, his Mikey is looking for purity. This is marvellously exposed in his discussion of science, in particular, molecules. When he thinks he finds some of this purity in Ricci, she abruptly disappoints him. Eventually, his fixation with uncorrupted reality leads to his undoing. It is this heartbreaking singular moment in the film, this dramatic point, this singular pure space in the film, which comes after a particularly exuberant moment, that perfectly delineates the ideas of alienation and hopelessness being discussed here.

Director Ang Lee presents numerous images of life "on the verge." The film is set at a time when two major thematic elements are occurring. The first of these is the titular ice storm, which acts as a metaphor for these character's isolation from their feelings as well as from each other. Ice is hard and beautiful, it glimmers, yet it is also temporary and fragile. It's complex crystalline structure is easily corrupted. Emotions and feelings are sublimated here and swallowed. Struggling to find their way in the uncertainty of the sexual revolution, the characters paradoxically insulate themselves from true sexuality, true emotion and their true selves. This is the ice storm. The film is also set during Thanksgiving, a time when families normally come together. But the world is changing and so are families. In the film, we see the world at the point where families began to truly fall apart. These children of 50's suburban paradise have evolved into a nightmare realm of sexual dysfunction and bitter isolation where everyone is so self-absorbed in their own obsessive pursuit of living that they have no room for other's needs or desires. Their lives are so truly devoid of happiness and contentedness that they have absolutely nothing for which to give thanks.

Lee and scripter James Scharmus, working from Rick Moody's novel, present a vivid and uncompromising view of the times in which this plot takes place. Lee seems to not only understand the times in which the story takes place, but also the political and social implications of the events of the time. It's a flawless view of the 70's; Yet unlike "Dazed and Confused" or "Boogie Nights," it has seemingly no moments of innocent naivity, no moments of joy. In this film, "nostalgia ain't what it used to be." The filmmakers gives us a time in American history where humanity and society seem posed on the brink of implosion. This film acts as a primer for discussion of the implications of this time on our lives and on American civilization. Like a point on a geometrical line, this time in our history represents the beginning of the end. The idealism of the 60's are gone, not even mentioned here really, and the paranoidic, technological, corporate mentality of the AIDS-infested 80's is right on the horizon. We look back at those anthropomorphic moments and remember our pasts and the baby steps we ourselves were taking at this time. Whether we see ourselves in the adults or in the children here, we are helped to understand ourselves and our pasts. We wonder how not only we, but society survived at all. It is no accident here that the main characters live in a town that is literally at the "end of the line" (of the subway cars which run into New York). This is the lat moment in time, the last moment before the fall.

Lee reminds us of the bland sameness of the mid-70's. This is another reason why the film is set at Thanksgiving. After the antonym of family togetherness we witness here, we are subjected to the leftovers. We are reminded of the sickening repetition of eating turkey over and over again. We can taste it. It is again a metaphor for the overall bland drill of the lives of these characters. This is shown again and again in the film. In scenes of men all in the same trenchcoat getting into the subway cars, in the plot point which has Maguire's school chum, Francis (David Krumholtz) consistently stealing the girls on whom he has crushes, and finally, so we understand that this dull throbbing exercise affects the children as well, in a scene where Hann-Byrd shows Ricci a talking G.I. Joe doll which has broken and only says the same thing each time his string is pulled.

The 70's were such a vapid and terse time in American history, that it is no wonder nihilism was a cinematic theme which was celebrated. "The Ice Storm," a 90's film, doesn't have the luxury to glorify this feeling of reckless abandon. Instead it presents, unashamedly, the vacant and insipid hollowness of the sexual revolution and 70's suburban existence. The modular houses, pop-art paintings, remote control garage door openers, and wife-swapping parties which seems so important and liberating to us were actually our gas chambers and isolation cells. Our desire to be distinct lead instead to empty conformity. We filled our spiritual and emotional voids with sex, of all sorts, a myriad of narcotics and alcohols, and still we were empty. We struggled to hold on to the little that we had and still we lost everything. The effects of this war reverberate throughout our lives to this day.

Note:

Also with Henry Czerny, Katie Holmes, Michael Cumpsty, and Phillip Edwards.

Cinematography by Fredrick Elmes. Costumes by Carol Oditz. Producers include Ted Hope and Lee.

The exceptional score music is by Mychael Danna.

Weaver is showing reading a novel by Phillip Roth. Music includes Bowie's revamped version of his Tin Machines "I Can't Read," Jim Croce's "I Got a Name," and Elton John's "Levon." The film "Deep Throat" is mentioned.

(Review written in 1997)

Report Card

Script: A

Acting: A+

Cinematography\Lighting: A+

Special Effects\Make Up: A+

Music: A+

Final Grade: A+