MovieChat Forums > The Ice Storm (1997) Discussion > What was the point of Tobey?

What was the point of Tobey?

posted 10 years ago by mk_k6-326-626621
3 replies | jump to latest

This was a moving film filled with interesting characters and sublime performances - notably Sigourney Weaver. What i don't quite get is why Tobey Mcguires character is in this film let alone narrating it. He is the least fleshed out character, seems entirely superfluous to the key characters lives and yet his face is the first thing we see and the voice we hear. The analogy with comic characters his narration was trying to draw or his silly facial expressions, all of it seemed like an after thought, something added in and that took away from the rest of the film. I would have happily have had Christina Ricci narrate or the younger brother, who were very much part of the story throughout. So my question, why is Toby's character in this, what does he serve to the story line and above all, why is his character the narrator when he is hardly there at all?

[–] TheXmanCometh 10 years ago

Spoiler Alert about the novel!!!!

At the end of the novel Paul reveals that he is the one telling the story: "Or that's how I remember it, anyway. Me. Paul" This is why he narrates the film.

We may know a little less about Paul than some other characters in the movie. But he is off at school and comes back home with a certain amount of "what is going on around here?" I think that Paul is picking up on the problems in his parents marriage more since he is seeing them again for the first time in months. He has a couple of similar reactions to his sister as well.

[–] shred-com 9 years ago

The final scene wouldn't have been nearly as powerful if Tobey's character wasn't in the film. Ben and Elena's neighbors oldest son had just tragically died, and I think Ben realized how grateful he was to have what he had in life when he looked at his oldest son.

[–] codyhoskins 8 years ago

Paul feels very disconnected from the major spine of the film and doesn't play a prominent role in the tension that builds between his family and their neighbors. Paul isn't affected by the events that occur between the two families, he remains ignorant and distant from it which makes me wish he had an encounter with any of the Carvers since all the other Hoods encounter all the Carvers. I think the only point for him was to exist in the story and provide the philosophical outlook of the film, especially to provide a spiritual link to Mikey who suffers the same fate as the boy in the Fantastic Four issue Paul's reading on the train just after Mikey gets electrocuted. He's the poet of this film and his voice and presence deepen this magical realist sense of the world his family is living in and his presence in the aftermath of Mikey's death represents a sense of order for the Hoods to return to. They're the family that still has everyone together and it means something to them even if the parents may inevitably split up as they mean to do so in the book.