Iced Over

I'll see a movie for a rather wide variety of reasons, but one that often seems to get me is an "epic cast." When enough people line up to be in one movie, I figure it has to be for some reason, right?

That's how I came to The Ice Storm, the 1997 movie featuring Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and Elijah Wood. I didn't even know much of what the movie was really about. I just decided to take the plunge.

It turns out the movie isn't really about much of anything. It's an "arranging matches" movie without even any "arranging." It's more a "look... here we have some matches" movie.

Forced to try and describe what little plot there is, here you go. It's the early 1970s. A married man (Kevin Kline) is cheating on his wife (Joan Allen) with another woman (Sigourney Weaver). Meanwhile, the teenaged children of both couples are interacting as well, exploring their sexuality. Everyone's on a sort of journey of self-discovery, though with a rather dogged refusal to actually face much of anything in themselves. And it all comes to a head on the night of a freak ice storm that roars into town.

That's it. It's a film simply about characters... but a little too simply. None of the characters are especially well drawn, and certainly none are really likeable. They mostly draw their strange motivations from the desire to inject any life into a boring suburban existence, but such a faithful portrayal of boring surburban existence makes for -- obviously -- a boring movie. Aside from some interesting but odd scenes for Elijah Wood's character in the final act, the only real highlights of the movie come from spotting other actors making small appearances before anyone knew who they were. (Hey, it's David Krumholtz from Numb3rs. And Allison Janney from The West Wing. And... what the hell? Is that Katie Holmes?)

There are a few frankly beautiful pictures painted by director Ang Lee with the help of his cinematographer, images of the titular ice storm and its aftermath worthy of framing in still life on your living room wall. But it's not nearly enough to make up for the fact that the movie feels like a still life even while you're watching it. I rate The Ice Storm a D.