TMS Retro: Revisiting The Ice Storm

(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

NOTE: This article was originally written for Times of San Diego in 2017

After so much time passing, the 1990s are now being considered a ‘classic’ decade. While I try not to feel my age that the decade of my childhood is currently a part of the ‘oldies’ aesthetic to teenagers, I do find it fascinating which pop culture has stayed relevant, and which has grown more popular over the years. One movie that has always impressed me is Ang Lee’s 1997 adaptation of Rick Moody’s 1994 novel The Ice Storm. 1997 was a big year for Hollywood with James Cameron’s Titanic, P.T. Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential, Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Gus van Sant’s Good Will Hunting and James L. Brooks’ As Good as It Gets to name a few hits. Naturally, Lee’s retro drama would get a little lost in the shuffle.

Now past the mid-point of the holiday season, and with so few Thanksgiving movies out there to pick compared to Halloween and Christmas, this week would be a great time to revisit The Ice Storm. Starring some of the biggest names in film during the ‘90s—Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood and Katie Holmes—the story takes place during a record-breaking cold Thanksgiving break in 1973 New Canaan, CT. Sixteen-year-old Paul Hood (Maguire) returns home for the holiday from his prep boarding school while pining for pretty classmate Libbets Casey (Holmes). His dad Ben (Kline) is having an affair with Janey Carver (Weaver) from the neighborhood; his mom Elena (Allen) is having a mid-life crisis as a housewife; and Paul’s 14-year-old sister Wendy (Ricci) likes messing with Janey’s sons Mikey (Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd).

(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

It’s surprising how even two decades later, Lee’s most overlooked feature still hasn’t found much traction with general audiences. It did well with critics and got a couple of award nominations on top of the all-star cast, yet obscurity. In the era of ‘Netflix and chill’ and legal marijuana, you would think a movie featuring drug experimentation, sexual awakenings and a key party might make the rounds again. So I’m going to personally plug what I feel is Lee’s most fascinating and brilliant film and has Kline, Weaver, Ricci and Wood at their best. The movie is particularly a poignant moment for Ricci and Wood, as it would be the official turning point of them graduating from family films to grown-up features. The Taiwanese filmmaker has an interesting flare for capturing western culture in his pictures whether it’s 1811 England with Sense and Sensibility (1995) or 1973 Connecticut in The Ice Storm. In the latter, he shows how self-involved and confused most people were in the mid-20th century accompanied by the icy cinematography from Frederick Elmes and somber music score by Mychael Danna.

If you want to take a break from John Hughes’ Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) or Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) for a turkey weekend flick, here is my recommendation.