The Ice Storm

Can't believe I hadn't seen this movie until today. Brilliant. Loved it. My schedule is odd, I keep having these one hour appointments at odd times during the day and all this space in between class and meetings etc. I figure once school gets going, it'll smooth out. Or maybe it's my planning. Anyhow, it leaves these little pockets, and I've been heading over to the library to watch flicks. Man, this film was full of the "it" teenage actors, huh? Christina Ricci, Frodo and Spiderman. The story and way it was told was so rich and controlled and purposeful. It felt like every detail meant something and there wasn't anything superflous. The ending was great, this almost happy ending, the family being together and all of them almost able to appreciate being there - because each had their own little tragedies throughout the film. But Kevin Kline starts weeping...he can't hold it together, the father isn't able to keep himself and his family together. The final shot is on Toby as if to say - Can you handle it? It's a challenge to men to modernize and discover some new form of masculinity, obviously not patriarchal, but also not hypocritical, to be fathers and husbands and men of substance, without resorting to phony religiousity or patriarchy.

Christina Ricci sums it up while wearing the Richard Nixon mask, "Don't play the stern dad with me."