The Ice Storm, written by Rick Moody and James Schamus, directed by Ang Lee

The Ice Storm, written by Rick Moody and James Schamus, directed by Ang Lee

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E  and   http://realini.blogspot.ro/

-          "It was 1973, and the climate was changing."

This is the tag line of this excellent film.

It is a wondrous, if sad story, directed by Ang Lee

The superb cast has a tremendous contribution:

Kevin Kline, Joan Allen Sygourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire and the others are exceptional in this movie.

Ben Hood is married to Elena and they have two children:

Paul and Wendy.

Ben is having an affair with Janey Carver, wife of George and mother of Mickey and Sandy.

It is a complicated web of relationships and betrayal, as announced in the tagline.

Janey, portrayed by Sygourney Weaver, is a strong, determined woman.

She can be funny, ironical and domineering when she feels like.

Ben thinks his wife may suspect something...

-          My wife may know there is something between us...

-          Yes?

-          What do you think?

-          I don't know, I am not the one living with her, am I?

And she maintains this aloofness, apparent disinterest in Ben, in spite of because they have had this intimacy.

Maybe she is getting bored.

Anyway, at one time, Ben has to wait for her for a long time, because she felt like doing something else, as she would explain later.

Even if it had been all arranged.

So Ben descends to the basement...

Where he finds his daughter playing a sexual game with Mickey Carver.

And he is so outraged.

That was funny, ironical and so thought provoking.

After all, we have this universal tendency to tolerate so many vices, mistakes and failures in ourselves, which in return disgust, horrify and repel us in others.

It is ok for Ben to cheat on his wife with his neighbor, but intolerable and unacceptable for his daughter to explore and kiss with the next door boy.

-          He is a weird boy!

-          Trust me, I have the experience, I know what I am talking about.

In another passage, he talks to his son about masturbation.

We all expect you to do it in the shower...

After this, Paul, played to perfection by Tobey Maguire, who has reminded me of another stellar performance in the wonderful Wonder Boys, thinks his father is strange.

Paul is trying to get close to a girl he likes - Libbets Casey.

All members of the family remark on the name of the girl, played by Katie Holmes in top form.

When he visits the impressive house of the beautiful girl, she falls on his lap...

Alas, it is not because she is in love with him, but because she entered a coma.

Previously, she had mentioned she feels something special:

-          You're like my brother

-          Yeah, I heard that brother line before...

Another outre event takes place at a party.

By now, Ben and Elena have it out in the open.

And here the sexual game of the shindig is:

All that want to take part, put their keys in a bowl.

At the end, they just draw out one, like a lottery ticket.

And they go home with the prize, which is another man or woman than the one they had come with.

At least there are higher odds for that.

I will divulge what happens during or after the game.

But it reminds me a classic of psychology:

-          Games People Play by Eric Berne