Unjustly ignored by the AMPAS, "The Ice Storm" may contain one of 1997's most shattering movie scenes: Elijah Wood calmly watching the falling electrical pole just moments before the current courses through his body. In this one scene, Wood confirms everything that has been predicted about his acting since he first appeared: this guy can act. Then again, practically the whole cast can, right down to the oft-overlooked James Sheridan, here given a substantial role which he shines in, and Adam Hann Byrd, further improving on his already impressive debut as the boy genius in Jodie Foster's "Little Man Tate".

Lee Ang has taken a quintessentially American tale of ennui and malaise in the mid 1970s and made it a universal meditation on the normlessness of life amongst the rich and dissatisfied. Joan Allen's put-upon wife is given a curious kleptomania which Allen uses to breathe new life to an old character; watching her silent performance as she shoplifts is to see the essence of her character captured in a few brief moments onscreen. Sigourney Weaver, in the second of a trio of truly dazzling performances in 1997, makes her character endearing and alluring - no mean feat, considering she's written as a bitch. Kline straddles farcical comedy and grave melancholy as the man who's oblivious to his own fortunes, so great is his discontent. Most of the "children" perform well, with Wood and Byrd the two stand-outs, given the complexity of their roles. Ricci reaffirms her considerable talents, but the amount of praise for Maguire's performance is largely undeserved.

This film is a mood piece, not so much about what happens to who, but what feelings and emotions it elicits from its viewers. From the sparse, haunting score to the rich details of 70s surburbia which have been faithfully recreated, Lee Ang's film is a celebration of cinema and all its possibilities. Again, I say, it is a crime AMPAS has completely ignored it.

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© Copyright 1998. If you've got anything to add, write me at terrybrogan@hotmail.com. Or don't. Whatever.