The Ice Storm
アイス・ストーム
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Thanksgiving 1973, a key party in Connecticut and the children who watch their parents swap.
Over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, in the wealthy Connecticut suburb of New Canaan, two neighbouring families are drifting. Ben Hood, bored with his marriage and his job, is having an affair with his neighbour Janey Carver, who is tiring of him. His wife, Elena, is restless and unsure what she wants. Their daughter, Wendy, fourteen, has begun experimenting with both Carver boys: withdrawn Mikey and his younger brother Sandy, who likes to blow things up. Their son, Paul, is away at boarding school, in love with a classmate, Libbets Casey, and competing for her with his room-mate, Francis.
On the Friday after Thanksgiving Elena realises that Ben is sleeping with Janey. They go to a neighbourhood party anyway, as do Jim and Janey Carver, and it turns out to be a key party: the men drop their car keys into a bowl, and the women draw them to choose a partner for the night. Janey draws a younger man's keys. Ben, drunk, falls over and shuts himself in the bathroom for the rest of the evening. At the end only Elena and Jim are left. They go off together, have a brief, awkward encounter in his car, and he offers to drive her home. Outside, the ice storm has begun.
In Manhattan, Paul finds that Libbets has invited Francis too; half-conscious, she tells Paul she thinks of him as a brother, and he catches the train home. Wendy goes to the Carvers' looking for Mikey, but he is out in the storm, so she stays with Sandy, who is in love with her, and they fall asleep. Mikey, enchanted by the frozen woods, sits on a roadside guardrail; a falling tree brings a power line down onto it, and he is electrocuted.
At dawn Elena and Jim, blocked by fallen trees, return to the Carvers' house, where Elena finds Wendy with Sandy. Ben, sober and driving home, finds Mikey's body by the road and carries the boy to his parents' door. Later the Hoods drive to the station to meet Paul's delayed train. Once all four are in the car, Ben breaks down and sobs at the wheel, and Elena holds him while the children look on.
Starring
Kevin Klineas Ben Hood
A bored suburban husband having an affair with his neighbour's wife, who ends the key party drunk and alone in a bathroom.
Ben Hood’s story
Ben is bored with his job and his marriage, and he is sleeping with his neighbour Janey Carver, who tells him he bores her: she already has a husband. Waiting in the Carvers' house after she fails to meet him, he catches his fourteen-year-old daughter, Wendy, with Mikey in the basement and marches her home through the snow; halfway, he asks if he can carry her, as he did when she was small, and she lets him. Elena sees through his excuse. At the key party Janey takes a younger man's keys, and Ben, drunk, falls over and spends the night in the bathroom. Driving home sober, he finds Mikey dead by the road and carries him to his parents' door. At the station, his family around him in the car, he breaks down at the wheel.
Joan Allenas Elena Hood
Ben's wife, restless and unsure what she wants, who learns of his affair and leaves the key party with Jim.
Elena Hood’s story
Elena Hood is restless in a cold marriage and unsure what she wants; like her daughter, she shoplifts. When Ben comes home from the Carvers' with a flimsy excuse, she sees through it, and by the night of the party she knows he is sleeping with Janey. They go anyway, and it turns out to be a key party. Janey leaves with a younger man, Ben shuts himself in the bathroom, and at the end only Elena and Jim Carver are left. She hands him his keys, and they leave together; after a brief, awkward encounter in his car, he offers to drive her home. Fallen trees send them back to the Carvers' at dawn, where she finds Wendy with Sandy. Hours later, in the car at the station, she holds Ben as he sobs at the wheel.
Sigourney Weaveras Janey Carver
The Hoods' neighbour and Ben's lover, a cool, detached mother of two boys who is tiring of the affair.
Christina Riccias Wendy Hood
The Hoods' fourteen-year-old daughter, sharp-tongued and restless, who is drawn to both Carver boys.
Wendy Hood’s story
Wendy is fourteen, sharp-tongued, obsessed with Watergate, and she shoplifts. She is drawn to both Carver boys, withdrawn Mikey and his younger brother, Sandy. When her father catches her with Mikey in the Carvers' basement, he marches her home through the snow, lecturing her, and halfway asks whether he can carry her, as he did when she was small; she drops her guard and lets him. On the night of the storm she goes to the Carvers' to find Mikey, but he is out walking in the ice, so she stays with Sandy, who tells her he loves her, and they fall asleep. At dawn her mother finds her there. When her father carries Mikey's body to the door, she holds the stunned Sandy. Then she rides with her parents to the station to meet her brother's train.
Tobey Maguireas Paul Hood
The Hoods' son, away at boarding school, who spends the night of the storm in Manhattan chasing a girl who sees him as a brother.
Paul Hood’s story
Paul is sixteen, away at boarding school, a reader of comic books with a slightly literary way of talking, and in love with a rich classmate, Libbets Casey, whom his room-mate, Francis, is also after. Home for Thanksgiving, he takes the train into Manhattan when Libbets invites him to her family's apartment, only to find Francis invited too. The three drink, and Francis and Libbets take pills from her mother's medicine cabinet. When Paul tells Libbets how he feels, she answers, barely conscious, that she thinks of him as a brother. He leaves them asleep and just makes the train home, which the storm leaves stalled on the line; he sits reading a comic. His family meets him at the station, and from the back seat he watches his father break down at the wheel.
Elijah Woodas Mikey Carver
Janey's elder son, withdrawn and dreamy, who walks out alone into the ice storm.
Why it matters
The Ice Storm is about the moment a generation of parents took up the freedoms of the sexual revolution and found they did not know what to do with them. The adults of New Canaan have affairs, go to a key party, argue about whether to go back into couples therapy and feel very little; their children copy them with the same blank curiosity, and nobody is watching anybody. Ang Lee and the screenwriter James Schamus, whose script won the screenplay prize at Cannes in 1997, keep all this cool and comic until the storm turns it into grief. The issues are adultery, the open marriage taken up as a fashion rather than a choice, and children left to learn about sex from whatever the adults leave lying around. What stays is the last image: a father weeping at the wheel with his family around him, for a boy who was not his, and perhaps for everything else.