The Ice StormWe look to our predecessors for guidance about how to behave in society; but if they don't practice what they preach, where does that leave their progeny? The Ice Storm is a drama set in the 1970s, depicting the complicated relationships surrounding the Hood family at Thanksgiving in New Canaan, Connecticut. The patriarch, Ben Hood (Kevin Kline), has an affair with his neighbor, Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver), as his wife, Elena (Joan Allen), struggles to balance her own values and desires. Their daughter, Wendy (Christina Ricci), is coping with her burgeoning sexuality, while her older brother, Paul (Tobey Maguire), tries to lose his virginity.
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The Ice Storm begins with Paul contemplating the role of the family as a powerful force with great destructive capabilities while reading an issue of "The Fantastic Four" on his homeward-bound train from New York City. This scene comes at the chronological end of the plot, ending with the rest of his family waiting for him on the ice-encrusted train platform, after the eponymous ice storm that has coated their town in a glittering sheen of frigidity. Just as Paul speculated about family, the ice storm is an inevitable and ruinous force of nature. The rest of The Ice Storm establishes the idiosyncrasies and emotional baggage affecting the Hood household through a series of episodes that precede this introduction. Ben and Elena entertain their fashionable neighbors at swanky dinner parties, where they drink wine freely, and share risque stories about "key parties"--a wife-swapping activity associated with the "swinging Seventies". This topic would be of questionable decorum even without their children present--who serve them and their guests--but here it becomes a badge of Ben and Elena's incompetence as positive role models. Ben and Elena are neophytes to this type of talk, but they fail to protest it in the presence of their kids all the same. Ben's secret affair with Janey reveals that despite appearing as a comparatively conservative pillar of the community, he indulges in the same vices intimated by his trendy friends. Hypocrisy is a central theme in The Ice Storm; scenes between the adults and their children parallel one another. Just as the film explores Ben's infidelity and how Elena manages, it explores the social circles of Wendy and Paul, like Wendy's secret boyfriend, Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood), and his younger brother, Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd), as well as Paul's love interest, Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes). These upscale adults are in a state of arrested development; they are stuck in the rotting residue of the "free love" movement of the Sixties, and liberally chatter on about porno chic topics like Deep Throat at their parties. Their children emulate their behavior in awkward ways, like when Wendy corners Sandy in the bathroom and tells him "I'll show you mine if you show me yours". Wendy is far from a precocious Lolita, but a girl with no one to turn to for answers about her maturation out of adolescence. She believes that because she is turning into an adult like her parents, she should act like them. It's confusing when adults like Janey thrust empty platitudes on her like "your body is a temple" after catching her with Sandy, or when her father gives her a stern warning after catching her awkwardly seducing Mikey while pointedly wearing a Nixon mask.
As with their children kids, the adults in The Ice Storm flounder with their ability to make sense of the complicated social mores of their world. Their tight-knit community is almost suffocating, making the affair between Ben and Elena both cliche and inevitable. There's no passion in their time together; it is as if the affair were just another spoke in the wheel of upper-class ennui. The climactic key party held at the end of The Ice Storm seems like a foregone conclusion for this insulated collective of bored, suburban couples. Elena participates because she knows of Ben's adultery and tries to revenge herself against him, raising the question about who else might be experiencing what she is, and why such a "game" was proffered by their hostess in the first place. There is an incestuous element to the New Caananites that violates the barrier of intimacy that should exist between neighbors, even if some of those neighbors have been intimate before. By virtue of being a part of this community, Wendy and Mikey are infused with the same spirit of vice and depravity found in their parents, even if they are not privy to the specifics of their sins. This explains why kids like Wendy find themselves fervently pursuing sex at fourteen, despite being brought up by superficially moral and virtuous parents. The key party, the affair, and other events reveal that even the adults struggle with morality. Elena hops on a bicycle and later shoplifts--like Wendy before her--simulating her daughter's behavior because she tries to understand her better, and to rekindle a simpler time in life where she wasn't confronted with problems like adultery or marital stability. Ben shuffles from one cliche "adult" interaction to the next. He sits idly by in board meetings--looking bored--and drones on with his lover about his colleague's golf game. Ben is a victim of his own lifestyle, one that has deprived him of the agency to feel his own emotions. Giving up his independence has turned him into a spiritually desiccated husk that gives a performance of "father knows best", the kind that stammers when he has to discuss puberty with his son. The underlying message in The Ice Storm is that if adults like Ben and Elena cannot set an example about how to live life for their children--because they don't know to themselves--what hope do their children have of escaping the same trap?
Recommended for: Fans of a cutting drama about the social dilemmas both adults and their kids face as they navigate the complicated byways of their lives. The Ice Storm touches on many familiar themes, like adolescence, sexuality, and society, while critiquing the role of the adults as a positive and honest role models for their children.
As with their children kids, the adults in The Ice Storm flounder with their ability to make sense of the complicated social mores of their world. Their tight-knit community is almost suffocating, making the affair between Ben and Elena both cliche and inevitable. There's no passion in their time together; it is as if the affair were just another spoke in the wheel of upper-class ennui. The climactic key party held at the end of The Ice Storm seems like a foregone conclusion for this insulated collective of bored, suburban couples. Elena participates because she knows of Ben's adultery and tries to revenge herself against him, raising the question about who else might be experiencing what she is, and why such a "game" was proffered by their hostess in the first place. There is an incestuous element to the New Caananites that violates the barrier of intimacy that should exist between neighbors, even if some of those neighbors have been intimate before. By virtue of being a part of this community, Wendy and Mikey are infused with the same spirit of vice and depravity found in their parents, even if they are not privy to the specifics of their sins. This explains why kids like Wendy find themselves fervently pursuing sex at fourteen, despite being brought up by superficially moral and virtuous parents. The key party, the affair, and other events reveal that even the adults struggle with morality. Elena hops on a bicycle and later shoplifts--like Wendy before her--simulating her daughter's behavior because she tries to understand her better, and to rekindle a simpler time in life where she wasn't confronted with problems like adultery or marital stability. Ben shuffles from one cliche "adult" interaction to the next. He sits idly by in board meetings--looking bored--and drones on with his lover about his colleague's golf game. Ben is a victim of his own lifestyle, one that has deprived him of the agency to feel his own emotions. Giving up his independence has turned him into a spiritually desiccated husk that gives a performance of "father knows best", the kind that stammers when he has to discuss puberty with his son. The underlying message in The Ice Storm is that if adults like Ben and Elena cannot set an example about how to live life for their children--because they don't know to themselves--what hope do their children have of escaping the same trap?
Recommended for: Fans of a cutting drama about the social dilemmas both adults and their kids face as they navigate the complicated byways of their lives. The Ice Storm touches on many familiar themes, like adolescence, sexuality, and society, while critiquing the role of the adults as a positive and honest role models for their children.