THE ICE STORM (Fox Searchlight) Starring: Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci, Sigourney Weaver, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd, Toby Maguire. Screenplay: James Schamus, based on the novel by Rick Moody. Producers: Ted Hope, James Schamus and Ang Lee. Director: Ang Lee. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, drug use, sexual situations, adult themes) Running Time: 115 minutes Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Brutally obvious "message" film-making just doesn't get more effective and entertaining than Ang Lee's THE ICE STORM. Continuing the trend of "Me Decade" venality-bashing begun by BOOGIE NIGHTS, it tells the tale of two troubled families in suburban New Canaan, Connecticut circa Thanksgiving 1973. Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) is having an affair with his next-door neighbor Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver) though neither one is sure exactly why; Ben's wife Elena (Joan Allen) tries not to acknowledge that she suspects anything. Meanwhile, 14-year-old Wendy Hood (Christina Ricci) experiments sexually with both of Janey's sons, Mike (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd), while Wendy's older brother Paul (Toby Maguire) tries to find a girl who isn't more interested in his prep school roommate Francis (David Krumholtz).
It takes no time at all to figure out that THE ICE STORM is meant as a critical study of an era when all sense of stability and authority were crumbling in America. With the Watergate scandal in full flower, parents dabbling in wife-swapping and even the local minister (Michael Cumpsty) given to flirting with his flock, the film's young characters are left to fumble for their moral way without a compass. When the parents actually do attempt to offer guidance, it proves worse than useless. Janey catches Wendy and Sandy together, then launches into a lecture which somehow drifts into primitive anthropology; Ben's years-too-late facts of life speech to Paul primarily covers "self-abuse" in the shower. James Schamus' script (adapted from Rick Moody's novel) makes it abundantly clear that plenty of important things were left unsaid while suburban parents of the 1970s were trying to be pals with their kids and "find themselves."
It is a credit both to the exceptional cast and to Schamus' finely detailed script that THE ICE STORM doesn't come off like exactly the kind of lecture those teenagers desperately needed. Moments of cringe-inducing awkwardness -- the tentative sexual games of youth, ill-advised romantic advances, foolish attempts to recapture the irresponsibility of girlhood -- spill off the screen as characters scramble aimlessly in search of some sort of fulfillment. Particularly vivid is the exploration of teen sexuality, energized by the frank performances of Ricci, Wood and Hann-Byrd. The treatment is neither exploitative nor ignorant, recognizing adolescents as far from the neutered creatures represented by Sandy's G.I. Joe action figure. Every performer turns in funny, provocative work, adding layers of confusion, yearning and desperation to a story which easily could have become pedantic.
THE ICE STORM only gets clumsy in the scenes involving Paul, whose infatuation with a wealthy New York girl is the stuff of over-earnest coming of age dramas. Toby Maguire has an affable charm, but his character never feels fully integrated into the story; he's a nice-guy throwback whose acts of conscience function primarily as counterpoint to the mistakes made by the rest of his family. His physical remove from the action does end up working wonderfully in the powerful conclusion, however, as tragedy forces characters to face up to their self-absorption and realize what matters to them most. It's an obvious lesson, perhaps, but one delivered with skill and grace. All family values sermons should be this haunting and insightful.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 ice teases: 8.
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