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The Ice Storm (1997)

tomatometer

83

Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 58
Fresh: 48 | Rotten: 10

Director Ang Lee revisits the ennui-laden decadence of 1970s suburban America with deft humor and gripping pathos.

79

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 3

Director Ang Lee revisits the ennui-laden decadence of 1970s suburban America with deft humor and gripping pathos.

audience

80

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 32,173

My Rating

Movie Info

Set on Thanksgiving weekend of 1973, The Ice Storm looks into the lives of a wealthy Connecticut family who are calm and civil on the outside, but whose lives are quietly falling into chaos. Sixteen-year-old Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) is home for the holidays from prep school; he'd just as soon have stayed at school, given the usual level of tension around the house and his desire to win the affections of Casey (Katie Holmes), a girl living in Manhattan. His 14-year-old sister, Wendy (Christina

R, 1 hr. 53 min.

Drama

James Schamus

May 13, 1998

20th Century Fox

Cast

All Critics (59) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (10) | DVD (24)

A well-observed and deftly performed examination of upper-middle-class emotional deep freeze...

July 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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A remarkable film that takes us straight into John Updike territory, duplicating on screen exactly what the writer achieves on the page.

April 12, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
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The best film about family so far this year. Just don't think Disney.

May 11, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
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It's unfortunate that as capable a team as director Lee and screenwriter-producer Schamus should have become fascinated with such unpromising material.

February 14, 2001 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
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I don't know when I've seen actors realize so many affecting moments in such a muddled conception. Lee's aestheticized approach is its own kind of ice storm.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comment
Salon.com
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Despite its mordant undertones, the film is often satirical and frequently very funny, and quietly observant in its performances.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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Beautifully nuanced, passionately performed, and terrifically realized piece of work.

February 15, 2009 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

Beautifully acted, refreshingly un-camp in its take on wide lapels and progressive rock and occasionally coolly moving. It's just that ultimately, there's less here than meets the eye.

November 21, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Arguably Lee's first truly essential film.

November 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Change, or the struggle to make change fit into the established system, is Lee's most familiar chord. He struck it loudest in The Ice Storm.

March 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

As in any joke, destiny is a major character.

March 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Lee's chilly recreation of a stormy Thanksgiving weekend captures a culture in snapshot...

March 20, 2008 Full Review Source: MSN.com | Comment
MSN.com

Marking its 10th anniversary, the 2-disc Criterion Collection contains commentary from director Ang Lee who depicts his satire as a "disaster" film, and new interviews with actors like Elijah Wood, who feels the movie lingers with you and is uncomfortable

March 15, 2008 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

A rich and elegant drama.

September 24, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comments (2)
eFilmCritic.com

What impressively begins as a gentle social satire gradually becomes a conventional family melodrama, one that lacks a clear moral center and in which the parents are just as confused as their children

October 25, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

A thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and melodrama...

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

...a black comedy ... that ultimately acquires Hitchcockian levels of suspense.

June 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Comment
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Ice Storm

Though I really dig the whole postapocalyptic end-of-the-world, freak of nature weather stuff, it was just too sapped of genuine emotion for me to care about this much.

June 9, 2007
jennifxu

Super Reviewer

Powerful and, at times, daunting. With the possible exception of Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver), all of the characters have depth and purpose. I still think Rick Moody's novel lends itself better to the stage but Ang Lee and his exquisite cast manage to get the most out of the material.

January 7, 2009
flixsterman
Randy Tippy

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Eissturm (DE)
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