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Movies / On DVD / The Ice Storm
The Ice Storm

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The Ice Storm (1997)

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Reviews Counted:54

Fresh:44

Rotten:10

Average Rating:7.6/10

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

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Director Ang Lee's main concern is a subtle examination of family life that he began with THE WEDDING BANQUET and EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN. With THE ICE STORM, Lee creates a truly American period film... Director Ang Lee's main concern is a subtle examination of family life that he began with THE WEDDING BANQUET and EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN. With THE ICE STORM, Lee creates a truly American period film that is equally concerned with family relationships, set in 1970s New England. It is Thanksgiving, 1973, and the Carvers and the Hoods are two prototypical suburban families seemingly living the good life in New Canaan, Connecticut. Behind their New Age philosophies and polyester fashions, however, lies deep discontent. One husband carries on an unsatisfying affair with the other family's wife, while his teenage daughter experiments sexually with both of the neighbor's boys. When a winter storm descends upon their upper middle class neighborhood, buried resentments bubble over, leading to a tragedy neither family will ever forget. An intense, well-acted drama based on the novel by Rick Moody, THE ICE STORM is a masterly depiction of the frigid emotional life of suburbia. Great care was taken to accurately recreate the fashion, philosophy, and music of the 1970s without devolving into camp. Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline, and Joan Allen all excel in their roles, but it is the younger actors (Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd) who steal the show. [More]

Starring: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire

Starring: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Henry Czerny, Courtney Peldon, Adam Hann-Byrd, David Krumholtz, Jamey Sheridan, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes, Michael Cumpsty, Allison Janney

Director: Ang Lee

Director: Ang Lee
Screenwriter: James Schamus
Producer: James Schamus, Ted Hope, Ang Lee
Composer: Mychael Danna

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Mar 13, 2001

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for The Ice Storm

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Beautifully nuanced, passionately performed, and terrifically realized piece of work.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
02/15/09
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
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.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
11/21/08
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Arguably Lee's first truly essential film.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
11/21/08
Channel 4 Film

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

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
07/28/08
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A rich and elegant drama.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
09/24/07
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
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

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
10/25/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and melodrama...

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

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

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
06/02/06
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Ang Lee is a terrific filmmaker, but his usually upbeat directing style is stilted by the angst It's a well crafted, but, ultimately, negative-feeling movie.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/09/05
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

It's concerned with the differences between the culture we profess and the lifestyles we actually indulge. Even more, it's about the consequences of betrayal.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
01/15/05
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

A quarter of a century ago, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver dealt with the same issues more successfully.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment 1 Comment
09/28/04
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

This is a cold and calculating film that will temporarily dampen those fond memories of everything we cherish from two decades back.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
05/14/03
Jeanne Aufmuth
Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

Sketched with subtlety and refined detail worthy of Ingmar Bergman.

Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
10/15/02
Margaret A. McGurk
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer

Damn, is this film great!

Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | comment Comment
09/10/02
Kevin N. Laforest
Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

No review available.

comment Comment
07/26/02
Scott Weinberg
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

Rather than being moved or transfixed, you feel frozen and impartial, almost as disengaged as the characters themselves.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
06/05/02
Lael Loewenstein
Lael Loewenstein
Boxoffice Magazine

A remarkable film that takes us straight into John Updike territory, duplicating on screen exactly what the writer achieves on the page.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/12/02
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The best film about family so far this year. Just don't think Disney.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
05/11/01
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Lee infuses the film with just enough humor to keep it from becoming unremittingly bleak, but the overall impact is harsh and caustic.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
02/27/01
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

It's unfortunate that as capable a team as director Lee and screenwriter-producer Schamus should have become fascinated with such unpromising material.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
02/14/01
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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