Interesting, as I love both films and both novels, but I think there are more differences than similarities.
when they're in the classroom and are debating some book or author.
In
Wonder Boys, the class is a college creative writing class and the work under discussion is a story by James himself (Maguire). IIRC, Hannah (Holmes) defends James's work, or at least is clearly sympathetic to him In
The Ice Storm, we are in a prep school literature class, and the dynamic is quite different: Paul (Maguire) is clearly more intellectual than Libbets (Holmes).
katie and tobey decided to work together on another movie
I don't know how much "deciding to work together" on their part actually took place. I rather think that more important considerations were made and their re-teaming was an accident.
almost the exact same characters
In
The Ice Storm, Paul (Maguire) has a crush on rich, unattainable and empty-headed Libbets (Holmes). In
Wonder Boys, gifted young writer James (Maguire) is gay, and is merely friends with gifted young writer Hannah (Holmes), who has designs on her professor (Michael Douglas) but later re-directs her attention to someone else, not James.
the exact same town
The Ice Storm takes place mostly in New Canaan, Connecticut (one of the most affluent communities in the United States, 2000 population 19,395) but we only see Maguire and Holmes together at school in New Hampshire and at her parents' apartment on Park Avenue in New York City.
Wonder Boys takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (metropolitan area population currently over 2 million).
In both films, Maguire plays a student who is suffering from depression (which is more clear in the novel of
The Ice Storm than the movie), and Holmes plays a girl who is tall.
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normastory69
14 years ago
damn, whoops!
i guess i should have check my facts. i stand corrected. i guess the point i was trying to make was that the scene when their having the discussion in the classroom LOOKED similar to the one in wonder boys and the fact that katie holmes and tobey maguire were in both movies was just funny when i watched this.
i guess i got carried away with the moment.
so that's what i meant, and now does anyone realise this similarity besides DryToast?
"laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone"-oldboy
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jgroub
14 years ago
DryToast - was the school in New Hampshire? I thought he came in by train both times? Or maybe I'm confusing the beginning of the movie with the end.
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DryToast
14 years ago
I think it's mentioned in the book that Paul's school is in New Hampshire. I'll poke around and see whether I can find it. In any case, I wouldn't take Paul's arrival by train as evidence one way or the other. Since the train station is prominently established, the filmmakers could be justified in having people arrive there from Mars, rather than introducing a bus station. I will ask my Connecticut friends what they think.
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jgroub
14 years ago
Funny - there's an article in the New York Times today about St. Paul's - and it's in NH. But he is arriving home by train from school, and that's where his dad picks him up. Probably a goof; unless he took a bus or something to NYC, and then got on the train back up to New Canaan.
I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
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DryToast
14 years ago
It's possible that Paul's school in the novel, "St. Pete's," is supposed to be St. Paul's. Even if he took a bus from New Hampshire all the way to Connecticut (as opposed to changing to a train in Boston), I think he'd still have to go to the bus station in Stamford and then take the 15-minute train ride to New Canaan.
In the novel, Paul only makes it back after the storm as far as Stamford and his parents have to drive there to get him, but I do not blame James Schamus and Ang Lee for trying to consolidate all the comings-and-goings into New Canaan train trips.
"There are only two perversions: hockey on grass and ballet on ice."
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