A poster of why humans hurt most the ones they love with delicately written characters and a reason to stay far away from your family.
No matter how cold it may get outside, the heart has the ability to stay colder. Humans have the remarkable ability to get on other people’s nerves so effortlessly which makes for compelling storytelling, for that I thank us all for being terrible at harmony. Stick enough of us in close proximity to each other and we’ll be at each other’s throats in no time. Dissent will freeze into our solid unthawing hearts and we’ll all be hurting each other without realising it. It’s human nature and the different shades of grey in which in manifests is all so entertaining for any sadist like myself.
The Ice Storm (1997) is such a character piece, and that immediately rings alarm bells of trouble (for the characters). Imagine owning a lovely ice sculpture, maybe one of a small cat, elegant and delicate in its beauty, and then hurl it the nearest wall, that is how the character dynamics in this film work.
The plot follows two interconnected families whose relationship is tested through their idiotic actions. Sounds precisely like the whole species that this family is a part of.
Delicately written characters with innocent vulnerabilities all start twisting each other’s emotions – often times without even being aware of the fact due to their naivety – and we witness this beautiful sculpture shatter into a million pieces. Adults walking around like impetuous drunkards and kids with a reckless and blunt touch are all equally ill-equipped to deal with their tenuous relationships with one another.
There’s a freezing (I can’t help myself with these cold adjectives) sense of depression lingering underneath the cosy illusion of their suburban lives, everyone is dissatisfied with someone or something because they never bothered to communicate or express themselves in the past and it shows through the acting. The cast? Pretty good I’d say, they all do their job convincingly and I was sold that this is a family that’s known some history together.
The kids all act supremely weird, which is exactly what they should do in my opinion before they’re expected to act sane and some of them make shocking yet unsurprising decisions.
Visually speaking I couldn’t find much to applaud at, the camera work wasn’t truly breath-taking apart from the frozen tinkling trees made out of glass as the whole world freezes over during the ice storm. The world takes on this symbolic slipperiness much like the slope upon which the characters are sliding down with each action that pulls them further apart from one another. Also, I found the occasional meta-narrative of the Fantastic Four comics framing and foreshadowing the films events quite nod worthy.
With the opening image of the film, serving also as the closing, a cold and frozen world in which we’re stuck between either huddling together like penguins to stick together and stay warm but also running the risk of getting on each other’s penguin nerves and start plucking one another’s feathers, this films posits the paradox of family and loved ones that no matter how much they try to love you, they’re love is the double edged sword that’ll cut you the deepest.
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