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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
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Reviews for The Ice Storm
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.
A quarter of a century ago, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver dealt with the same issues more successfully.
It's unfortunate that as capable a team as director Lee and screenwriter-producer Schamus should have become fascinated with such unpromising material.
The Ice Storm is a movie that's trapped under the ice, and it'll leave you feeling the same way.
Rather than being moved or transfixed, you feel frozen and impartial, almost as disengaged as the characters themselves.
With The Ice Storm, Lee seems to have emphasized the details of cultural accuracy over the rudiments of telling a gripping drama.
Over and over again in Austen, [Lee's] framing, his course of action, his editing suited and amplified the essence of the scene. But here everything in his directing, absolutely everything, is banal.
'Come back with us to those rolicking years of the 1970's and watch two dysfunctional families dysfunction!' I know you want to sign up right now.
Spot-on performances, some icicles that are pure visual poetry, and enough symbolism to fuel a thesis, make The Ice Storm anything but a gloomy ride.
The dazzling ensemble perfectly captures every nuance in one of the finest acting showcases you could hope for.
The Ice Storm has delightful moments of humour, but it is essentially a sombre film. But don’t let that put you off.
While I'm not the type of moviegoer who needs everything neatly spelled out, I do appreciate some sense of closure. In the end, this film is an enjoyable one, but it may be a little too hip for its own good.
Everyone is uptight, on the verge of breakdown, shrill and too aware of their various audiences. The film captures this sense of 'verge-ness' perfectly.
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