Word: hood
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...discovered the Tasty and it dawned on them that there was no way in hell I was going to the priest-hood...
...Hoods' Thanksgiving dinner is particularly telling: the awkwardness of trying to fit into a traditional familial mold is immediately apparent, but the source of that awkwardness is much harder to locate. In a dining room designed in functional '70s style--sleek metal chairs scrape against a stone floor, and large windows display the gloomy weather outside--Ben Hood asks his 14-year-old daughter Wendy (Christina Ricci) to say grace. Wendy can't take him seriously, so instead she delivers a monologue thanking God for the food they are about to gorge themselves upon, and then begins rambling about...
...When the Hoods attend a "Key Party," where husbands place their car keys in a bowl and wives fish them out to form new sexual partnerships, the hostess presents them with the bowl and says, with a devilish smile, "new this year!" It's too new for the Hoods, who don't quite know how to handle free love. Meanwhile, precocious Wendy Hood insists on wearing a Richard Nixon mask during foreplay with Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood). These details, however uncomfortably amusing, put the very local action of the film into a larger context. If the film's goal...
...child has died and one of the main characters is finally, in this world of restrained emotions, reduced to tears. For a while it seems as if the ice storm--which the camera dwells upon in the second half of the film--will transform the lives of the Hood family. Instead, it leaves them at the very bottom of the familial void to which they must belong...
...actors all give exquisitely controlled performances, but the film's depressing story arc leaves their performances stunted. As Ben and Elena Hood, Kline and Allen are especially adept at communicating their pain to the audience, even though they can't even communicate with each other. But Kline's character in particular comes across as clownish, because he's never given a chance to emerge from his foolish, self-indulgence. Ricci's stone-faced Wendy Hood is interesting to watch but difficult to penetrate. Sigourney Weaver's sultry next-door neighbor remains a mystery throughout the film. Lee suggests that every...