The Ice Storm
1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control.
- Director:Ang Lee
- Genre:Drama
- Runtime:113 minutes
Cast
Kevin Kline : Ben Hood
Joan Allen : Elena Hood
Sigourney Weaver: Janey Carver
Henry Czerny : George Clair
Tobey Maguire : Paul Hood
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The film begins at a dinner party at the Carvers’ house as the adults discuss pop culture references that defined the 1970s: the Watergate scandal, swinging parties for married couples, and the pornographic film Deep Throat. The Hood family includes Ben (Kevin Kline), Elena (Joan Allen) and their children, 16-year-old Paul (Tobey Maguire) and 14-year-old Wendy (Christina Ricci). Their neighbors, the Carvers, include Jim (Jamey Sheridan), Janey (Sigourney Weaver) and their children: Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd).
Both families are depicted as uncommunicative with the parents having difficulty talking to their own children and to each other. Ben, dissatisfied in his marriage and with the futility of his career, is having an affair with Janey. Elena is bored with her life and is looking to expand her thinking but is unsure of how to do so. Wendy enjoys sexual games with her school peers. Paul, an occasional drug user, is trying to bed his schoolmate Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes). The Carvers’ two sons are lonely and confused, Mikey playing along with Wendy’s sexual games while Sandy is obsessed with violence.
Jim Carver travels for his job and is, for the most part, not involved in his kids’ lives. In one scene he returns from a trip to find that his sons hadn’t even realized he’d been gone. Janey, who appears to be carrying on with a number of other men in addition to Ben, finds Jim to be largely an annoyance and would prefer he remain gone all the time. Elena, who is becoming tired and bored with her life, buys spiritual and self-help books and becomes friendly with the hippie-ish minister of a local church. But she is ultimately turned off by his subtle passes and his patronizing behavior towards her. She attempts to shoplift, as has Wendy – both are caught in the act.
During their trysts, Ben obsesses to Janey over his displeasure with his job and his frustrations at continually being bested by his colleague, smarmy George Clair (Henry Czerny). Janey, however, seems to have become bored with the arrangement since she has now become unfaithful, not only to her husband but to Ben as well. She abruptly leaves the room just prior to a planned sexual encounter with Ben, excusing herself to get “birth control pills” but instead flees the house leaving Ben alone. Read more
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