It is easy to
get caught up on the coincidences that The
Ice Storm shares with the future
works of its filmmaker and cast members. Four years before playing Spider-man,
the film opens with Tobey Maguire reading and musing over a comic book.
Spider-man is even made direct reference to in the novel by Rick Moody which
this film is based on, and the super-hero family of the Fantastic Four is a
central metaphor for the narrative. Director Ang Lee (The Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain
Though the
narrative is a great deal more cynical and tragic, the style of The Ice Storm aligns more with the
‘Father Knows Best’ trilogy than it does any of Lee’s later works. Much of this
may be because of the film’s haunting score by Mychael Danna, which utilizes
flutes for the more poignant sections. The story follows the evening of particularly
unpredictable ice storm on Thanksgiving in 1973 suburban Connecticut
The cast of
parents and children is filled with a number of recognizable young faces, with
Katie Holmes giving her film debut in a smaller role. The two main families in
the film are the Hoods and the Carvers. Elena and Ben Hood (Joan Allen and
Kevin Kline) have a sixteen-year-old boy named Paul (Maguire) and a
fourteen-year-old daughter named Wendy (Christina Ricci), while Jim and Janey
Carver (Jamey Sheridan and Sigourney Weaver) have two boys named Mikey and
Sandy (Elijah Wood and Adam Hann Byrd). Ben is having an affair with Janey,
while Wendy experiments with both of the Carver boys in their basement.
Sexuality is
something to be flaunted and discussed openly in The Ice Storm, especially over
casual conversation at dinner parties. This was an era which even nicknamed an
informant in the Watergate scandal after the popular pornographic film. Never
before (or since) was there a more sexually liberated society, and Lee satires
the parent’s longing to act younger than they are while their children attempt
to act older.
The Blu-ray
release of The Ice Storm presents a restored 2K digital film transfer,
supervised by director Ang Lee and director of photography Frederick Elmes,
with a 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. The special features
include a commentary track with Lee and producer/screenwriter James Schamus.
There is also a making-of documentary with interviews from cast and crew, and
additional interviews with novelist Rick Moody. Some of the more unique special
features include a series of illustrated audio interviews, while there are also
the traditional deleted scenes and trailers.
Entertainment Value:
7/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Disc Features: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment