The Big Picture
If you’ve ever stressed about seeing older relatives during the fourth week of November, then Ang Lee’s 1997 classic, and one of his best movies, The Ice Storm is the Thanksgiving movie for you. Unlike Halloween or Christmas, there aren’t a lot of essential “Thanksgiving” movies that are required viewing every holiday season. While Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is in a class of its own, you’d have to stretch to call films like Hannah and Her Sisters or Nobody’s Fool “Thanksgiving classics.” But The Ice Storm is a sensitive examination of the secrets beneath the surface of an idealized suburban community – a perfect subject to explore if you find being with your relatives uncomfortable on this holiday. The Ice Storm explores the inherent issue with “familial protocol” and the inability to communicate. By refusing to talk about uncomfortable topics, families can prevent themselves from healing. The Ice Storm looks at the consequences of avoiding important conversations.
In suburban New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, middle-class families experimenting with casual sex and substance abuse find their lives beyond their control.
Release Date September 27, 1997
Director Ang Lee
Cast Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Henry Czerny, Adam Hann-Byrd, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Jamey Sheridan, Elijah Wood, Sigourney Weaver
Rating R
Runtime 113m
Main Genre Drama
What Is ‘The Ice Storm’ About?
The Ice Storm takes place in a quiet upper-class community in New Canaan, Connecticut during the social revolution of the 1970s. The American Thanksgiving holiday has a controversial history involving the genocide of indigenous people, and The Ice Storm is explicitly about the ignorance of “White America.” This community wants to ignore the changes that are coming as they cling to any semblance of relevance that they can find in tradition and protocol. Holding on to these antiquated values (like a big Thanksgiving celebration) doesn’t only make these families miserable; it has a devastating effect on their children.
The film follows the loveless couple Ben (Kevin Kline) and Elena Hood (Joan Allen) as they struggle to care for their disassociated children Paul (Tobey Maguire) and Wendy (Christina Ricci). Both have turned to experimentation to cope with their loneliness; Wendy provides sexual favors to her classmates, and Paul fantasizes about his classmate Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes). What’s critical is that these aren’t depicted as acts of teenage rebellion; both Paul and Wendy have been denied a proper education on human sexuality – an education that doesn’t exist in “polite society.”
Ben’s struggles with his masculinity in the wake of his children’s issues have led him to have an affair with his neighbor Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver), who is in a loveless marriage to Jim (Jamey Sheridan). Similar to their neighbors, the Carvers are so wrapped up in their marital strife that they’ve become ignorant of their children’s developmental issues. Their young sons Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd) have grown increasingly agitated and reclusive. These boys have been taught that being open about their feelings is a sign of weakness, as their parents never allude to any personal issues. They’ve been taught that being an “adult” means ignoring these conversations altogether; Mikey even begins to bully Sandy as he struggles with self-hatred.
Ang Lee’s Characters’ Emotional States Mirror Their Setting in ‘The Ice Storm’
There aren’t a lot of filmmakers with the same sense of environment as Ang Lee. Whether it’s the illustrious English countryside of Sense and Sensibility, the spectacle of 19th century China in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or the beautiful American frontier in Brokeback Mountain, Lee can show how these settings inform his characters’ emotional states. The icy, old-fashioned elegance of the New Canaan community in The Ice Storm feels like it’s lifted from a painting that’s meant to be admired, but not lived in. The older roads and streets are helpless to ward off the blistering weather. Just like the community’s ideals, the infrastructure of New Canaan deteriorates because it refuses to change.
Thanksgiving provides the inciting incident that sets The Ice Storm’s characters on their journeys of self-examination. Both the Hoods and Carvers attend a party on Black Friday. Ben and Elena are reluctant to go, as details of Ben’s affair have emerged and Elena doesn’t want to be seen in public with a man she can’t stand. They’re once again forced by societal obligations to attend the party, which is revealed to be a “key party” that pairs couples with different sexual partners.
Although this is the type of “misbehavior” that would seemingly allow the Hoods to feel more free, it’s clear that this new exploration is not of their choosing, and it only makes them more uncomfortable. Ben doesn’t want to be “swapped,” as he genuinely cares for Janey. In a cruel sense of irony, Jim and Elena are “paired” together. Both now feel an obligation to consummate their agreement as an act of aggression towards Ben and Janey, but their clumsy attempt at intimacy leaves both embarrassed and humiliated. Lee sets this awkward encounter in the front seat of Ben’s car as the cold weather surrounds them; it has all the romanticism of a teenage affair.
Why Setting ‘The Ice Storm’ Over Thanksgiving Works Brilliantly
The awkward intimacy of adults is beautifully paired with romantic scenes between the younger characters; Wendy searches for Mikey but is unable to find him. She tries to settle for Sandy by offering him vodka, but they both fall asleep before going any further. This would be a moving moment of earnest exploration if it was an isolated incident, but it’s coupled with Mikey’s journey alone into the wilderness. These quiet scenes of Mikey traveling on his own speak to the themes of the film; there is beauty in things that cannot be denied, like the natural world. It’s truly an extraordinary, restrained child performance from Wood, who proved long before The Lord of the Rings that he could make audiences weep to the point of embarrassment.
Setting the film over the Thanksgiving weekend was a brilliant way to show the deterioration of values. Why should we celebrate our history if we’re ignorant of it? Why should a family come together if they don’t truly know each other? Why do we hold on to traditions that we don’t truly believe in? Lee hints at the existential anxieties of the upper class in a way that is both critical and empathetic. He shows that the path towards change is not an easy one for these families to embark on.
The Ice Storm was sadly a box office disappointment on its initial debut, and despite its flashy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it failed to land any major Academy Award nominations. There were flashier films in 1997 and Lee would go on to make more outwardly emotional stories, but The Ice Storm has a lingering power that remains just as timely as it was 25 years ago. If you want a Thanksgiving film that is truly a conversation starter, then The Ice Storm is the chilly tearjerker you need to check out.
The Ice Storm is streaming on Max in the U.S.
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