The Ice Storm

Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

Cat.no: PLFEB 37291

Cert: 15

Running time: 109 minutes

Sides: 2 (CLV)

Year: 1997

Pressing: 1998

Chapters: 13 (7/6)

Sound: Dolby Surround

Widescreen: 1.85:1

Price: £24.99

Extras : None

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Director:

Ang Lee

Cast:

Kevin Kline
Sigourney Weaver
Joan Allen
Henry Czerny
Adam Hann-Byrd
Tobey Maguire
Christina Ricci
Jamey Sheriden
Elijah Wood

Taiwanese-American Ang Lee has directed a series of movies really getting under the skin of different cultures - Eat Drink Man Woman (modern Taiwan), Sense And Sensibility (nineteenth century England) and now this, a devastating study of marital infidelity and teenage self-discovery in NewCanaan, Connecticut. Kline is conducting an affair with neighbour (living nearby in a sparsely populated, forest area) Weaver, his wife Allen (Face/Off, Manhunter) is a pathological shoplifter and his two kids - college boy Maguire and fourteen year old daughter Ricci - are getting interested in the opposite sex, specifically boy next door Wood and his little brother Hann-Byrd.

This is the world of key parties, where wives deposit keys in a bowl on arrival and leave with the husband of the key they pick out, of unspoken Vietnam guilt and televised Watergate hearings and of frozen wet weather conditions admirably reflected in the chilly cinematography of David Lynch regular Frederick Elmes.

Despite rumours that the picture on the NTSC disc is rather dark (which not having seen it we can neither confirm nor deny), this PAL transfer appears fine in that regard - although it must be said that some of the lighter pastel colours are subject to a fair degree of visual noise.

This is a minor irritation, however, compared to the atrocious chaptering. Leaving aside the paltry thirteen stops, none of the chapters appear to be where you want them. Side two manages only two chapters in its first thirty five minutes, then uses one chapter for the frozen train starting up and another to mark the scene where Maguire is reunited with father, mother and sister at the train station. But if you wanted to examine the performances in the movie, all of which are terrific, your choices are extremely limited. Chapter seven begins a few bars into rather than at the start of a typically memorable music cue (would that really have been so difficult to get right?) while the side break occurs slightly after the couple's arrival at the key party (it could easily have been somewhere in the preceding ten minutes).

Chaptering aside, the sound is strong with memorable storms which sound different inside and outside houses and cars. Also outstanding is Allen's offscreen car door slam on the rear speakers as we watch the dumbfounded Kline on the screen in the passenger seat. In fact, there are a number of great surround moments involving doors or people suddenly becoming aware of other people entering or leaving their houses. Michael Danna's atmospheric score, relying heavily on chimes and drums, is terrific stuff and the mixing spreads it nicely around the sound field.

In short, although the disc isn't likely to win any awards and has its faults, the considerable strengths of the film make it well worth having. It's a pity all those concerned with the disc's production seem to care so much less than all concerned with the film evidently did - the disc doesn't even include a trailer.

Film: 5/5
Picture: 4/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1998.