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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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Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
tomato
4/4

Michael Dequina

Beautifully nuanced, passionately performed, and terrifically realized piece of work.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 15 2009 05:41 PM

TheMovieReport.com

tomato
3/4

Maitland McDonagh

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: | comment Comment | Nov., 21 2008 12:37 PM

TV Guide's Movie Guide

tomato
4/5

Arguably Lee's first truly essential film.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Nov., 21 2008 12:33 PM

Channel 4 Film

tomato

Todd McCarthy

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 28 2008 03:15 AM

Variety

tomato
5/5

Rob Gonsalves

A rich and elegant drama.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Sep., 24 2007 10:18 AM

eFilmCritic.com

tomato
B

Emanuel Levy

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: | comment Comment | Oct., 25 2006 08:57 PM

EmanuelLevy.Com

tomato

Geoff Andrew

A thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and melodrama...

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 24 2006 04:28 AM

Time Out

tomato
91/100

Philip Martin

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 02 2006 07:39 AM

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

tomato
B-

Robin Clifford

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: | comment Comment | Apr., 09 2005 03:26 AM

Reeling Reviews

tomato
A

Jeffrey Overstreet

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: | comment Comment | Jan., 15 2005 10:22 PM

Looking Closer

splat
4/10

Dragan Antulov

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

Full Review Source: | comment 1 Comment | Sep., 28 2004 12:05 PM

rec.arts.movies.reviews

tomato
3/4

Jeanne Aufmuth

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: | comment Comment | May., 14 2003 05:05 PM

Palo Alto Weekly

tomato
3.5/4

Margaret A. McGurk

Sketched with subtlety and refined detail worthy of Ingmar Bergman.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 15 2002 08:07 AM

Cincinnati Enquirer

tomato
4/4

Kevin N. Laforest

Damn, is this film great!

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Sep., 10 2002 08:06 AM

Montreal Film Journal

tomato
5/5

Scott Weinberg

No review available.

comment Comment | Jul., 26 2002 02:27 AM

eFilmCritic.com

splat
2.5/5

Lael Loewenstein

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 05 2002 08:06 AM

Boxoffice Magazine

tomato
4/4

Rick Groen

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: | comment Comment | Apr., 12 2002 08:06 AM

Globe and Mail

tomato

Peter Travers

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 11 2001 08:39 PM

Rolling Stone

tomato
4/4

James Kendrick

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: | comment Comment | Feb., 27 2001 07:22 PM

Q Network Film Desk

splat
2/5

Kenneth Turan

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: | comment Comment | Feb., 14 2001 12:37 AM

Los Angeles Times

 
 
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