Name: Retro Film Review: The Ice Storm (1997)
Item: The Ice Storm
Rating: 40
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

In 1990s most Hollywood films dealing with 1970s painted that particular period of history with great deal of nostalgia. This is quite understandable, because people - especially those that aren't young any more - tend to see the past through rosy glasses. Very few film-makers dared to go against the current and remind the modern audience why 1970s used to be called "Years of Lead". One of such films was The Ice Storm, 1973 drama directed by Ang Lee.

The plot, based on the novel by Rick Moody, is set in small Connecticut town during Thanksgiving 1973. While Richard Nixon's administration is struggling with escalating Watergate scandal, two families are faced with more prosaic but equally unpleasant problems. Ben Hood (played by Kevin Kline) is father of family who, despite marriage counselling, can't seem to connect with his wife Elen (played by Joan Allen) any more. Elen tries to seek comfort in self-help books, pill-popping and shoplifting. While Ben seeks solace in the arms of his neighbour Janey Carver (played by Sigourney Weaver), Ben's 16-year old son Paul (played by Tobey Maguire), student of posh New York boarding school, tries to have sex with rich girl Libbets (played by Katie Holmes) with the little help of mother's pills. His two year old younger sister Wendy (played by Cristina Ricci) is sexually experimenting with two of Carver's boys - Mikey (played by Elijah Wood) and Sandy (played by Adam Hann-Byrd). The lives of two families are going to be changed with the arrival of ice storm.

Ang Lee and his screenwriter James Schamus see 1970s as very bleak, but also fascinating period of history. Social, cultural and political turmoil of 1960s was replaced with disillusionment, depression, nihilism and mostly unsuccessful attempt to replace old values with new ones. In the film middle and upper classes - the very embodiment of American social establishment -are adopting or trying to adopt ideas and values of 1960s anti-establishment rebels. Hoods and Carvers engage in sex, drugs and other "hip" forms of hedonism while trying to find some ideological justification for their straying from the old "square" way of life. They also attempt to find some common ground with their children and evade generational conflict that plagued their own parents. But the children are actually more perceptive - for them 1960s didn't bring any kind of brave new world. Instead, collapse of old order left them without any moral anchor; the only common thing that they have with their parents is inability to adapt to new circumstances. Any attempt to bridge generational gaps only leads to more misunderstanding and tragedy.

It is clear what Lee and Schamus want to tell with The Ice Storm, but their way of conveying this message leaves much to be desired. Lee seems to be more interested in style than substance. For example, bleakness of 1970s is matched with the grey tones of Frederick Elmes' cinematography. Lee also tries to underline the sense of doom and despair with the long shots of the locations that surround unhappy protagonists of this film. Because of that, The Ice Storm is overlong. Cinematography also works against the film - at times it is very hard to set two characters - like Paul and Mikey - apart and the audience might get confused. The otherwise dependable actors like Kline, Weaver and Allen often try too hard to make their characters as dislikeable as possible and, in the process, make this film even less pleasant for the audience. The ending, despite its seemingly melodramatic potential, is un-cathartic and many viewers are going to think of The Ice Storm as pointless as its characters. Tobey Maguire in his role provides some humour, but this isn't enough to improve general impression of the film. Quarter of century ago Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver dealt with the same issues more successfully.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on September 28th 2004)