The Ice Storm

Ang Lee’s 1997 film The Ice Storm is a rare gem of a film. It is a film that never quite reached a mainstream audience yet received critical acclaim at the time of its release and still remains largely unknown today, except by those who might consider themselves film ‘enthusiasts.’ Still the film remains an extremely accomplished and compelling piece of cinema, and probably the most distinctive example of director Ang Lee’s cinematic style.

  Based on the book of the same name by author Rick Moody (who was reportedly so happy with the adaptation of his novel that he sobbed through the credits), the film takes place in Connecticut in 1973.As the innocence and idealism of the sixties melts into quiet desperation, two middle class families prepare for thanksgiving weekend within affluent suburbia. Both families have suffered an almost complete break down in communication, the parents have become distant from each other, their children are unresponsive and the sons from one family don’t even notice when their father has been away on business.  The adults indulge in affairs and drug taking, activities that offer some form of escape from their seemingly successful lives that now feel poisonous. Their children are already experimenting with drink and casual sex, missing a vital understanding of the true ramifications of adulthood but struck with the same urge to alleviate boredom and fear as their parents.  There is an atmosphere of impending doom that permeates the films earlier scenes, excellently created through a musical score that is both simplistic yet haunting.  This overwhelming sense of danger, which acts as a prolepsis to the films tragic outcome, is emphasised through the children’s actions-one child balances precariously on the edge of a frozen diving board, another is blowing up toy planes with dynamite, much to the exasperation of his mother. 

Then an ice storm hits, the worst for a century, and our sense of dread is justified. As the storm envelopes their small town with dwarfing power, the parents of both families attend a ‘key swapping’ party, in an attempt to vanquish mutual feelings of doom with some adulterous frivolity. The children are once again left alone, isolated and vulnerable, eventual victims of a society that is asking them to grow up too fast. The people within this film are by no means extraordinary, and neither are the events that befall them. In fact they could be seen as extremely flawed and perhaps even unlikable in some cases. Yet where The Ice Storm becomes truly brilliant is in the way it deconstructs these characters, stripping away the layers until we are left not with caricatures or stereotypes but with characters that are genuinely real, their veneer fast fading leaving the hurt, disillusion and disappointment as clear to see as sunlight.

The most stirring and heart rending scene belongs to the ending  sequence, where a title character weeps helplessly into his steering wheel like a child, the tragic accumulation of events finally catching up with him. A sudden realisation that he has allowed everyday life to tilt dangerously out of balance.