Although there are a few plot differences between the book and the movie (and the name Carver is Williams in the book), both are excellent in depicting the members of these two families. What could go wrong?Īfter watching the movie a second time, I decided to read the book, by Rick Moody, on which it was based. The adults are high or drunk at the party, and their children are left at home, within walking distance of each other’s houses. Meanwhile, there is an ice storm outside. One of the key scenes in the movie is a neighborhood “key party,” where men put their car keys in a bowl and, at the end of the party, after much drinking, their wives pull out random keys, and, at least in theory, go home with the owner of that set of keys. And stuff ourselves like pigs, even though children in Asia are being napalmed.” Her father’s reaction, “Jesus! Enough, all right? Paul… roll?” And for letting us white people kill all the Indians and steal their tribal lands. And for all the material possessions we have and enjoy. There are some very funny scenes, mostly of adolescents being adolescents, such as Wendy’s giving grace, “Dear Lord, thank you for this Thanksgiving holiday. Katie Holmes plays a rich, sort-of girlfriend of Paul’s. The cast includes top-rated actors Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, and Sigourney Weaver. The actors are extremely good at showing these changing relationships.
The real story is of the emotional relationships between each of the characters. Almost the opposite, the sexual encounters are interrupted, fumbled, “awful” or, after the fantasy of the encounters have been built up, they don’t take place at all. Throughout the course of the Thanksgiving week, each person in each family, except Paul who is away, explores his or her sexuality with others in the other family.īut the story is much more than about sex, and the sex certainly isn’t a feast of sensual stimulation. The Carvers, Janey and Jim, have two boys: strange, pensive teen, Mikey, and pre-teen, Sandy, who likes to blow things up. The Hoods, Ben and Elena, have two teens: a boy in boarding school, Paul, and a girl in middle school, Wendy. The sexual mores have loosened considerably from the constraints of the 1950s and have not yet been walloped by AIDS. The emotional impact of the movie was shattering.Įvents take place when the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal are topics on the news.
The movie wasn’t so much about the storm itself, but about two troubled white, middle-class, nuclear families in suburban New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1973.
We had been through Williamsburg’s ice storm of 1998 and knew how dangerous it could be. I don’t remember why my husband and I first watched the DVD The Ice Storm, but it was probably because we were enjoying movies directed by Ang Lee ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Pushing Hands Brokeback Mountain, and others).
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