Review of The Ice Storm (1997) by Michael S — 27 Sep 2008

I truly respect a film whose strength is in its ambiguity. To be explained every motivation, every plot twist, robs the audience of a certain interplay with the film. "The Ice Storm', a film of great ambiguity, leads us into some very strange territory as we observe a few days in the lives of two quite dysfunctional families in 1973 Connecticut.

And this is real dysfuntion, not the kind one sees on Dr. Phil. This is the kind of dysfunction where nobody has their feet planted on the ground firmly enough to even establish a real argument. Before the film descends, in its second hour, into a vast metaphor (one which some have deemed too heavy-handed) we are treated to intriguingly amorphous vignettes of these suburban lives.

The most poetic, I find, is when Mikey (Elijah Wood) is running on the high school football field to catch a pass, we hear a strange electric buzz in the cold November air, he drifts into slow motion, a near pirouette, and stops completely.

The sound drowns out. The ball falls somewhere in the background and the young boy looks incredibly, inexplicably and heartbreakingly lost. We cut to Wendy (Christina Ricci) watching him with curiosity.

Do they share the moment? We're left to wonder. The moment is pure tone, suggestion and metaphor for everyone in the film - lost people with no sense anymore of what the hell they're doing and why.

As disturbing a dramatic film as one can find - a film where the sex is forced and cold, the relationships so bereft of energy or passion, the humanity on display so very much in need of something out of reach - and also one of the best of the 90s.