Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This popped into my brain a few times during "The Ice Storm": with a movie like this, one wrong move and it could've gone "American Beauty" pretentious. It doesn't, to its credit. I feel like I'm supposed to actively dislike these character, but they just felt complex. Completely unrelatable, but at least not obnoxious. This movie never struck me on an emotional level, and even the tragedy that befalls one of the supporting characters is subtle and understated. I kinda wonder if maturity is the key to fully enjoying this movie. Either that or becoming emotionally dysfunctional, and here's hoping that doesn't happen.But aside from that, I think any of us can appreciate the authentic period detail, moody vibe and exceptional ensemble cast. On that level, this movie soars.6/10

It's Thanksgiving 1973 New Canaan, Connecticut. Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) is going home to his dysfunctional parents (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen) and promiscuous sister Wendy (Christina Ricci). Their best friends are the Carvers (Sigourney Weaver, Jamey Sheridan, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd). The two families share more than simple friendship. Paul is in love with rich schoolmate Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes) but his roommate Francis Davenport (David Krumholtz) is moving in.The theme of ice and cold infuses the whole movie. It's a world of disconnected people and their secrets. The actors are all superb from the adults to all the kids. It does need the connective tissues to make this flow more. The disconnections from the characters just build and build until the literal ice storm.

1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control.Film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film Two Thumbs Up, with Gene Siskel calling it the best film of the year, and Roger Ebert calling it Ang Lee's best film yet. Siskel was probably overstating things, while Ebert was probably right. Even now (2015), this remains a largely overlooked film despite Lee's direction and the many actors who were big or have since become bigger.Personally, I really liked the comic book (Fantastic Four) angle, and wish this had played a bigger role. But I will take what I can get and I think it was well done.

The Ice Storm, set in 1973 during the era of the sexual revolution, is much more disturbing and eye-opening than its simple cover and title make it appear. Not only does it star some amazing actors/actresses, but despite the dated and nostalgic setting it has a timeless message: when parents forget their kids are there, well, kids still see, hear - and pick up on - everything adults do. Everyone was a kid at some point, and many of us can recall times when our parents acted more like teenagers than caregivers. The difference is, in The Ice Storm, the carelessness of the fictional parents leads to the horrible death of a little boy.Discos, key parties, drugs, booze, free love, it's all the thing in 1973 as the latest trend. The problem is, that kind of thing spreads to a middle-class community and starts messing up families and friendships. The true sufferers though are the kids. Wendy (Christina Ricci) is only fourteen but enjoys copying her parents' lifestyle, leading to her getting sort of a bad reputation. Libbits is just a kid but left home alone by her parents in a house filled with drugs. Sandy is obsessed with violence, Mikey is hardly noticed and Francis is always getting high.One night during a key party in the neighborhood, every one of the characters learns something shocking about the way the swinger lifestyle is; the sexual revolution isn't all it's cracked up to be. Just when it looks like things might change, one of the younger neighborhood children has gone outside into a deadly ice storm... and it was because, to the parents, he hardly existed until it mattered most of all.The Ice Storm really hits you at the very ending, when one of the parents breaks down crying at the wheel of his car in front of his family. He realizes that their own negligence caused the death of a child, all over a key party, a stupid game for adults who don't want to grow up. Wendy suddenly realizes how childish her behavior has been, and the parents realize that the whole time they were getting after their children for perverse behavior it was all being learned from the parents themselves. Kids pick things up. The Ice Storm is just a lesson for us all, a worst-case-scenario of sorts, set in a time not so long ago.The soundtrack was beautiful, the acting was excellent and the plot was very original (it was adapted into an episode of the show Cold Case titled "The Key"). And while the sexual revolution was several decades ago, today is the tech revolution. Adults are using phones more and more without communicating in anything but texts. Maybe The Ice Storm's message is more universal than meets the eye, because it's true, kids do pick up on their parents' behavior, and it's not always a good thing.