[Mr. Ramsay woke up to feel the empty space beside him…

Watching the Ice Storm, a movie by Ang Lee, based on a novel by Rick Moody, I realized this movie is Virginia Woolf.

The movie is all about isolation, sexuality, and stunted emotional connections in 1970’s Connecticut. Kevin Kline is a successful businessman and father who’s having an affair with his neighbor’s wife. His 16-year-old son (Tobey MacGuire) is awkwardly trying to woo sexual partners, but Kline’s 14-year-old daughter (Christina Ricci) is doing a much better job. Meanwhile, Kline’s wife is starting to figure things out and the whole marriage is about to explode at a key party (did those ever actually happen?).

Thematically, the movie was so Woolf: sexual isolation, masculine dominance, the way in which people orbit around each other without ever coming in contact, etc… But in style too the movie felt like To the Lighthouse. The perspective of the movie changed constantly between the characters, often jumping back or pausing time in order to fit everyone in. Watching the movie brought me right back to Lit Hum.

But here’s the smoking gun: look at your copy of To the Lighthouse. There, giving his endorsement- Rick Moody! Apparently he’s a huge fan, so no wonder the movie based on his novel sounds like her.



So: if you want to get that warm Lit Hum feeling, rent The Ice Storm. But if you want to see a Peter Seller’s movie that looks and feels like it was directed by Wes Anderson, rent Being There. Sellers plays a mentally handicapped Washington D.C. shut-in, who forced out of his home, accidentally becomes the counselor of presidents and billionaires. The beauty of the movie is in the secondary characters, who are all pent-up in their lifestyles and ambition, and project their own desires and hopes onto Seller’s blank, placid face. Please, for the love of god, rent this movie, if for no other reason than the last 1 minute, which I kept thinking about for days. I can’t possibly tell you more (oh wait I can- the soundtrack is awesome)—just see it.