The Ice Storm (1997) - Lee makes one of the year's great American films

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Elongated, eye-focused peaks at three of the film's stars make up most of this blue-toned poster for Ang Lee's The Ice Storm

The father in a nice-looking Connecticut family in the bold 1970s has an affair with the neighbor's wife, while their daughter fools around with two brothers from the same neighborhood, and their son goes to New York during an ice storm.

 

The Ice Storm is written by James Schamus (Indignation (2016)), adapting the same-titled 1994 novel by Rick Moody (Garden State (1992)), and directed by Taiwanese-American master filmmaker Ang Lee (Pushing Hands/Tui shou (1991)), whose 5th feature it is.

An intelligent, stealing meditation of family, sexual identity-making and the dangers in the modern world, The Ice Storm stands out as an excellent drama.

In the glorious cast, durable work is turned in by Kevin Kline (Ricki and the Flash (2015)), Joan Allen (Death Race (2008)), Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man 3 (2007)), Christina Ricci (Miranda (2002)), Sigourney Weaver (Madman (1978)) and Elijah Wood (The Good Son (1993)). The Ice Storm ends powerfully and is a beautiful drama.

 

Related posts:

Ang Lee: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]  
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date   

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
Life of Pi (2012) - Lee's triumphant, stunning faith-builder 

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Lust, Caution/色，戒/Sè, Jiè/Sik1Gaai3 (2007) - Lee's erotic spy thriller is an exquisite, complex masterpiece 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Brokeback Mountain (2005) or, That Place That Weren't Possible  

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Hulk (2003) - Lee's fantastic comics adaptation drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 18 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 16 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.88 times its cost)

[The Ice Storm premiered 12 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place from April - June 1996 in New York and Connecticut. The film opened #17 to a 75k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it grossed 8 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The foreign gross numbers are not made public, but it is ascertained at The-Numbers.com that the film made almost as much internationally, which would rank it as a huge flop. It won 1/2 BAFTA nominations, an award in Cannes, losing the Palme d'Or to Taste of Cherry, and was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Lee returned with Ride with the Devil (1999). Kline returned in In & Out (1997); Allen in Face/Off (1997); and Weaver in Alien: Resurrection (1997). The Ice Storm is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Ice Storm?

Pleasantville (1998) - Ross lays out Hollywood liberal ideas in original classic

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A fabulous rainbow drives through this classy and supremely elegant poster for Gary Ross' Pleasantville

A quarrel over a remote control gets two teenagers sucked into the boy's favorite 1950s sitcom Pleasantville, where everything is black and white, and neither fire, sex, toilets, art nor death exists.

Pleasantville is written, co-produced and directed by great Californian filmmaker, debuting Gary Ross (Ocean's Eight (2018)).

It is a really good film based on an exciting and original idea. The plot moves fast, seemingly because Ross wants to cover many points. The conservative proprieties have no qualities; the advent of sins and unrest after the fall of the residents of Pleasantville are also casually leaped over: The present time (and colors) are simply preferable to repression (whatever the costs, apparently.) Liberal emancipation is for the good in absolute terms in this anti-conservative, liberal fantasy that's also interesting as an ideological time machine. Ross' somewhat complacent point is also carried through with the preachy lines from Tobey Maguire (Labor Day (2013)) at the film's end. Before this, however, Pleasantville is fantastically sweet, funny, attractively photographed (by John Lindley (Castle Rock (2019, TV-series))) and produced in a staggering scheme of black and white and colors. 

The turns from especially William H. Macy (Sahara (2005)) and Joan Allen (Room (2015)) have moving high points, but the performances are good all over. Pleasantville has cinematic qualities, thought-provoking themes - and great hair and makeup work! It is a modern Hollywood classic, an inventive and original work from Tinseltown. 

Related posts:

 

Gary Ross: Ocean's Eight (2018) - Commercially mandated spin-off sinks 

The Hunger Games (2012) - A global, teen-centered sci-fi smash

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: 49.8 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.83 times its cost)

[Pleasantville premiered 17 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Shooting took place from March - July 1997 in California. The laborious camera work on the film cost the life of camera operator Brent Hershman, who fell asleep behind the wheel driving home one night after a 19-hour work day on the film. The film opened #1 to an 8.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3), grossing 40.5 mil. $ (81.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, winning none: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, lost to Shakespeare in Love, Costumes, also lost to Shakespeare in Love, and Score (Randy Newman (Toy Story 4 (2019))), lost to Nicola Piovani for Life Is Beautiful. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Ross returned with Seabiscuit (2003). Maguire returned in The Cider House Rules (1999); Reese Witherspoon (Just Like Heaven (2005)) in Cruel Intentions (1999). Pleasantville is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pleasantville?

Face/Off (1997) - Travolta and Cage butt heads in Woo's wild, silly action machine

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Major stars Nicholas Cage and John Travolta seem to melt together on this sparse poster for John Woo's Face/Off

The mad terrorist Castor Troy assassinated FBI agent Sean Archer's son some years in the past. As Archer finally brings the lunatic in, he is a vegetable. - In order to prevent Troy's also mad brother Pollux from bombing Los Angeles, Archer undergoes surgery in order to 'attain' Castor's face and body. - But complications arise, when Castor escapes his coma!

Face/Off is written by Mike Werb (The Mask (1994)) and Michael Colleary (Firehouse Dog (2007)) and directed by great Chinese filmmaker John Woo (Mission: Impossible II (2000)). As is obvious from the story summary above, it runs on a very silly plot with incredibly unlikely elements, to put it mildly.
First of all, Face/Off is a major star vehicle action movie, and John Travolta (White Man's Burden (1995)) and Nicolas Cage (Ghost Rider (2007)) both overplay their wild-mannered, identity-swapping characters eminently, which suits the ludicrousness of the film perfectly. 
Woo wrangles his biggest production yet here, and he makes his loud but elegant brand of action work as high-end mainstream Hollywood fare. It is a crazy jaw buster of a movie, but in my book his next major Hollywood actioner, Mission: Impossible II is a more thrilling and satisfying film.

Watch a trailer for the film from a VHS here

Cost: 80 mil. $
Box office: 245.6 mil. $
= Box office success (3.07 times the cost)
[Face/Off premiered 19 June (Westwood, Los Angeles) and runs 138 minutes. Werb and Colleary were trying to sell their spec script in 1990. The first package included Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in the two leads. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles and San Diego. The film opened #1 to a 23.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5) and grossed 112.2 mil. $ (45.7 % of the total gross). It was the 11th highest-grossing film of the year in North America, and the 14th highest-grossing globally. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Sound Editing, which it lost to masterpiece Titanic (1997). Woo returned with Dolph Lundgren-starring TV movie Blackjack (1998) and theatrically with great actioner Mission: Impossible II (2000). Travolta returned in Mad City (1997), Cage in City of Angels (1998). Face/Off is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Face/Off?

The Notebook (2004) - A modern, and very old-fashioned, love-story classic

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+ Best Breakthrough of the Year: Ryan Gosling + Best Melodrama of the Year + Best Romance of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year: Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams + Best South Carolina Movie of the Year

A delicate, sensual poster for Nick Cassavetes' The Notebook

The Notebook is an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember (1999)) novel by American director Nick Cassavetes (John Q (2002)), the son of great American actor-director John Cassavetes (Faces (1968)) and actress Gena Rowlands (A Woman Under the Influence (1974)).
It's a story of socially awkward love, as a belle of the high society falls for a lower class working country boy. Their relationship ends by orders of her family, and years pass by, in which he fights in WWII, and she gets engaged to another fine gentleman.
The story is told in a frame about an old man, who reads the story to an old lady in the present day in the nursing home where she resides. She has dementia, and by and by, we realize SPOILER that they are the two main characters of the 'story', which is the story of their lives and their strong love.

From the get-go, - a visually breathtaking boating sequence during the title credits, - The Notebook is a swooning, wildly emotional movie. It is securely placed in the melodrama genre and feels comfortable there, without any tinges of irony, elements that are unrelated to the story, or even scenes that do not completely flow with the general, extrovert emotionality of the film. Things are written OUT, and the lines are big, - the characters never hold back. Visually as well, the team go all out, as with the romantic boating scene amongst hundreds of white ducks.
This brings a level of unreality to the film at times. As with the facts that Noah (Ryan Gosling (The Place Beyond the Pines (2012))) writes 365 (no more, no less (!)) letters to his love. Or that they are away from each other 7 (!) years, (but obviously haven't aged more than a few days. - This could perhaps have just been 3 years...?) I swallowed these very minor reservations, because the film makes you do that and just go along and love it for what it is, - but totally real, The Notebook doesn't feel.
The performances of the two leads hooked me early: Gosling and Rachel McAdams (Morning Glory (2010)) are young and vivacious and sparks fly between them, as they command our attention to them wholeheartedly. There's real movie magic going on in The Notebook in their scenes, which gives us a wonderful, believable, impulsive romance that sweeps us away.
The fine cast also includes, playing 'third violin', a good James Marsden (X-Men 2 (2003)). And Cassavetes has cast his own mom, Rowlands to portray the aged, demented Allie, a part which is perfect for her, and she is strikingly beautiful throughout and really made that whole frame-story work for me. Her deeply human face and empathy once again draws you to her. 

James Garner and Gena Rowlands in Nick Cassavetes' The Notebook

In other very good supporting roles, Sam Shepard (Mud (2012)) and Joan Allen (Pleasantville (1998)) are solid. The Notebook is bereft of monsters and tough villains, which is liberating. It is an honest and wonderful love story with a beautiful, touching ending. 
Let yourself enjoy this one; it is a very fine movie and a modern romance classic.

The details:

The style of The Notebook is an impressive, well-crafted mix that almost instantly brings back memories of the Douglas Sirk (Imitation of Life (1959)) melodramas of the 50's. One also thinks of Gone With the Wind (1939), yet often the camera does move in closer, so that the style never seems dated but still remains modern and fresh.
The costumes, hair, production and location work is top notch. Just look at McAdams in this picture and try not to get carried away to long lost times:

Rachel McAdams is a joy to the eyes and ears in Nick Cassavetes' The Notebook

Rowlands, who made her TV-debut in 1954, amazingly, is still in movies; Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (2014) being the coming attraction.
Cassavetes has earned tremendous box office but critical disregard for his latest, the vulgar chick flick The Other Woman (2014). His next project will be the real-life period drama Kentucky Rhapsody.
Gosling has premiered his directing debut, Lost River (2014) these days in Cannes to boos, ridicule and scattered praise. Cannes verdicts are notoriously unreliable, though, as with Nicholas Winding Refn's Gosling-starring Only God Forgives (2013), which critics chewed up and spat out last year, but which is really a great film.

 

Related post:

 

Nick Cassavetes: 2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 29 mil. $
Box office: 115.6 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Notebook?
Have you seen other Nicholas Sparks adaptations, and if so, how were they?