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not the kind of film to watch right before you want to go to sleep; one of the best films of 97

The summary statement I write I mean as a compliment. In short, this film will keep you up thinking about the characters, the whole swarm of tragedy sewn into these characters, as it is a true look at American familial dysfunction. It's also the Chinese-directed cousin of American Beauty- in some ways just as compelling (if maybe a little more heavy on the metaphors)- and by the end of it, however down and drained the film made me feel, I knew I'd seen my favorite Ang Lee film thus far. He takes the subject matter- the script by James Schamus, and the nuanced performances- and makes it so that we feel for these people, however trapped into their upper-middle class walks of life. The ice theme does work for a good lot of the film, and even when it gets hammered down to the line, I was still moved by how these families intertwined, the bleakness but also the little bits of light coming through.In fact, the film shares a good deal with American Beauty- two families, both fairly screwed up, with infidelity, drugs, procrastination, young lust, and a certain pining for the old days going steadily down the tubes. One family are the Hooods (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci and Tobey MaGuire); the other are the Carvers (Sigourney Weaver, Elijah Wood, Henry Czerny, and Adam Hann-Byrd). Either side has their share of dilemmas, psychological cramps, and just total aimlessness. The performances from all are unique and quiet, desperate, and at least a few (in tune with the 'ice' theme), in particular Weaver, Wood and Allen, are numbed. Basically, there isn't as much story as there is attention to the fates and parallels of the characters.Among the lot though, Kline has some of his best work to date, with his controlling demeanor masking something very insecure; Hann-Byrd and Wood are totally complimentary, so to speak, in that they work well at being brothers of the same weird seed; Allen, not much more to say that hasn't been said by others; and even smaller roles filled by Katie Holmes and David Krumholtz are worth the time. There stories all lead up to the big chunk of the story (ala the 'day you die' stuff in American Beauty), and at times it's painful, cringe-inducing, darkly amusing, and at the end hitting notes that had me eyes go wide. And the ending, when it comes, is sentimental, but never unrealistic. This is the kind of tone that Lee would also use for Brokeback Mountain, but here it contains even more depth and intrigue into the dysfunction, ironically in only the span of a few days vs. the span of twenty years in Brokeback.You may, whether you like the film or not, will want to talk about it once it is over. It of course can be argued, and I would argue it, that the 'ice' motif is pushed to as far as it can go, and then some (then again it IS called the Ice Storm). But in contrast, another minor theme is handled superbly, involving the Fantastic Four comic book that Maguire's character gives some narration about. By looking through an abstract of a comic book, there's some extra meaning that can be put into the film, the power that can be taken away from superheroes as well as the enclosed New Canaan citizens. Along with some great 70's era period use- the Nixon/Watergate stuff adding another layer to the frustration (leading up to a truly disturbing moment involving a Nixon mask)- including music, creates a very impressive atmosphere. Maybe I'll check out the film again, when it's not past midnight, though even after hours the film packs a small wallop. 9.5/10

Dark, Depressing, and Beautiful

*The Ice Storm*The ice storm is a different kind of movie... it's hard to describe. It is by far one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen.It all takes place Thanksgiving 1973. It follows the story of a family (a rather odd mixture) Kevin Kline as the father, Joan Allen as the mother, Tobey McGuire as the son, and Christina Ricci as the daughter. You can tell by the cast that it is not the regular American family. The movies shows what all of the family was doing that Thanksgiving. With adult afairs, children experimenting with drugs and sex, and just a bunch of disfunctional family drama this movie should be no role model for the typical American family.But this movie is beautifully made. Wonderful acting by Kevin Kline and the rest of the wonderful cast. If you liked American Beauty than I suggest you rent this.
*8/10*

Great Film!

This movie was amazing. I've seen it several times now... Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci are awesome. This film totally captured the feeling of cold as ice tension. Did you notice "Ben" breaking the ice in the kitchen for his drink? I felt as if the parents were so wrapped up in their own self induced situations, that they ended up neglecting their children... thus "Wendy" slutting it up, "Sandy" is showing signs of anger/destruction and "Mikey" is involved in a fatal freak accident. That's just my take on it. Incredible film!

Dysfunction Junction

Suburban anomie turns deadly - deadly dull that is - in this adaptation of Rick Moody's tale of next-door neighbors discovering the jaws of life in 1970s New Canaan, Connecticut.There were three slice-of-life films set in the American 1970s made in the 1990s, split up chronologically and geographically as if by design. In reverse order, "Boogie Nights" covered the West Coast in the late '70s, "Dazed And Confused" central Texas in the mid-'70s, and this focused on the East Coast in 1973. "Ice Storm" aimed closest to where I lived, yet the film feels the furthest afield of any '70s I remember. There's no crunchy, funky, good-time neon-blue candy power-pop feeling coming off this baby. It's cold, emotionless, almost Scandinavian, and not in an ABBA-ish way.Thanksgiving, 1973. While the Watergate scandal consumes the country, the Hoods and Carvers hunker down for some holiday cheer, little imagining the storm brewing over their heads. When Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) and Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver) aren't meeting for illicit sex, kids Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood) and Wendy Hood (Christina Ricci) do the same. Elena Hood (Joan Allen) alone seems to sense something seriously wrong, but is too locked into her own cocoon to do anything.The problem with "Ice Storm" isn't just that the plot, as it develops, feels a little too dire for the situation. The problem is it's hard to care. The characters aren't awful, not even Janey, despite Weaver's tarantula-lady wardrobe. They are simply inert and unsympathetic, living la vida coma with their prescription drugs and meaningless sex games.I want to totally align myself with Graham Deans Williamson's review from August 31, 2004: There's a lot of good things in this film that never come together, and not enough surface pleasure to make the medicine go down smoother.Director Ang Lee and screenwriter James Schamus make a point of hitting us over the head with the ice theme, it forever crackles in trays, rattles in glasses, and crunches beneath our feet. No metaphor is left unhammered, from the opening dissertation by older son Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) regarding the comic-book heroes Fantastic Four as symbolic of family, "the closer you are drawn back in, the deeper into the void you go." When Wendy makes her move on Mikey, she wears a rubber Nixon mask, the ultimate symbol of corruption, although Lee and Schamus conversely take pains to present their pubescent explorations as the only thing about this life worth having.There are also the ridiculous contrivances, such as a "key party" where husbands and wives swap partners as if it is some casual New Canaan tradition, never mind the facts of how gossip about such a thing would have gone down the next day in the kind of uptight WASPy enclave we are presented with here. Much of the high drama at the movie's conclusion falls into this category as well."The Ice Storm" is the kind of film I wish I could like, having lived through the time period and remembering well the sense of society crumbling around me, along with the heady pleasure of unbridled kookiness. But if it had been in real life like it had been in the movie, I would have been better off kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. It's hard to care much when no one on screen does.

New appreciation for the role of a director

I could not believe how confused this movie is. I am not a movie connoisseur, and tend not to follow actors, directors, writers, etc., but this movie was so bad that I will remember, and avoid, Ang Lee, the director. Which story is he trying to tell? He shows no ability at all. The poor actors were put to shame in this movie. I give it a '1'.

Why?

First before I go off on this movie the acting was quite excellent. 2 questions to ask yourself before buying this. Will there be a plot? Is an ending a good thing to have? Answer number one: This movie had no plot jumping from one thing to the next for no reason. The comic books in the movie have more plot. The only thing that made this movie go along was that the train had a schedule. Please have a sequel to end this movie since there isn't one now. A final question is do we need teenaged nimphomaniacs. NO. My god I might have rated this movie a 3 if it weren't for that. If you don't think those were good answers to those questions well put in the context of a movie and you have Ice Storm

A very good film

THE ICE STORM is a very good film. It gets the mood, and feel of the 70's down. The direction is very, very good. Ang Lee has definately grown alot as a director since some of his previous efforts.The thing that holds greatness off is one key performance that fails to live up to what is needed. Joan Allen is her normal brilliant self, and was deserving of an Oscar Nomination. Sigourney Weaver was very good, but the performance that seemed a little.... empty was that of Christina Ricci. I think she is a talent, but I have never seen an actress who has consistently left me with no impression whatsoever. For the role that Ricci played, a better choice in casting would have been Natalie Portman... that girl can do anything.All in all, we are given brilliant, 3-Dimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and great performances, along with great direction. It is a very good movie which was number 10 on my top ten list.

All that acting out is gonna lead to trouble!

Solemn movies which hope to expose the underside of human nature (like, say, "American Beauty") either intrigue audiences with their melancholy passages or simply put people off. Personal taste will have to determine where "The Ice Storm" falls. It certainly has a good cast of actors and an interesting production design. The picture had great possibilities, however both the central issue--how our carnal desires lead to trouble--and the answers we get are old news. There's the stifled housewife who dusts off an old bicycle so she can regain the freedom of her girlhood, the teenage daughter acting out what she doesn't see at home, the father having an affair with the neighbor. It plays out distressingly, like a familiar TV show. Although better than "American Beauty", "The Ice Storm", which takes place in 1973, makes obvious, rather redundant points against our culture (or, what was our culture), yet director Ang Lee is so overly-precise in his handling, he neglects to modulate the characters' behavior--and if this was intentional, he doesn't recognize the irony; he smooths over everything so all we have left to respond to are the performances. Christina Ricci and the ingratiating Tobey Maguire do the stand-out work; Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and Joan Allen are reliable as always. **1/2 from ****

Every bit as chilly as it is brilliant

Ang Lee has indeed created a modern masterpiece. The film deftly explores the many dimensions of loneliness and sexual frustration that were very prevalent in the early 1970's. The cast is exceptional as well - including top honors to Christina Ricci and Sigourney Weaver. It's a shame that the film was not nominated for any Oscars, since it is such an interesting character study and fascinating to watch again and again.

Yeurrghhh !

"The ice storm" is a terrible movie. But the worst thing about it is that it doesn't look like one... You may sit through this load of preaching crap and think that it's a rather nice but sad story, you may even cry at times (for Ang Lee really tries hard to make you sob - see the emphatic ending) and yet you may forget the rather sick, judgemental and conservative morality to this film : don't forget that family (even the dullest one) is everything, never cheat on your wife (or at least not too often !!!) cause if you do, God (or is it Ang Lee ???) will punish you. Happy viewers, you have been warned.

A film that lasts

The Ice Storm is a film that lasts in the memory.Its a tragic story of non-communication set within a beautifully composed snapshot of 70s mores. The cast is outstanding, and the story slowly travels down the slope to its sad ending with a sense of inevitability in which we can each see parts of ourselves and echoes of our own relationships and unhappiness reflected from the screen.The characters each travel through their own emotional maze, unable to see over the hedge to those closest to them. The wife-swapping party is a scene of tawdry desire in which the audience is able to see through the shallow hysteria which the characters are unable to penetrate.I read Rick Moody's book after seeing the movie. Its one of the few instances I can recall in which a book has been so beautifully presented on screen without loss or change to its basic elements. I recommend both.

Dark,compelling story set amid social changes in the 1970s

This fim is moody and morose, just like the book which I read a few years ago. It now has a talented director (Ang Lee) and some well-known actors (Kevin Kline, Signorey Weaver). The Ice Storm is a metaphor, of course, and the scenes takes place over a Thanksgiving weekend in New Canaan, CT in the early seventies. The parents are experimenting with the sexual revolution. The teenage children and smoking pot and feeling the anti-war movement. The sudden social changes are confusing everybody.

The story is dark and compelling and the children come across as more real than the parents. It is a hard film to watch, given its subject. Thought it was was excellent athough I wasn't smiling when the film ended. I was thinking.

One of the most moving films I have ever seen.

There is nothing about this touching, intelligent film that doesn't deserve top marks, from the director Ang Lee to the actors, including stunning and very sensitive performances by the young actors Nina Ricci and the very talented Elijah Wood. Normally not given to watching any film more than once, I have seen this film twice now and was moved to tears both times. Playing in 1970's America it shows the effect of relationship breakdowns not only on the adults but also on the children, who, without guidance experiment with sex, in the same way the adults do. After the harrowing climax of the film, the lesson to be learned is that emotional and physical intimacy rather than the desire for fulfilling sexual fantasies, is what keeps marriages together and provides an environment that allows children to grow up with a sense of belonging and emotional security.Oh, and there are some laughs too!

Pre-American Beauty

Ice Storm, reminded me of American Beauty. If you liked American Beauty, you will definitely like this movie; I guarantee it. Ice Storm is a story about two American families who have troubled marriages due to typical boredom that kicks in after long years of marriage or even before that in fast paced American culture which makes some of its members sexually (and financially) greedy. As a result, Ben Hood (Kevin Cleine) starts and affair with Janey (Sigourney Weaver). Their children are at the verge of entering puberty. Ben's only daughter, very promiscuous Wendy, makes out with both brothers of Carver family, sons of Janey and Mike Carver. So, where Ben is secretly having an affair with Janey, his daughter Wendy is secretly making out with Janey's sons who are the sons of the woman his father is having and affair with. Whether Wendy knows about his father's affair is not made clear; it is more like she doesn't seem to care for anything other than herself. It is very ironic for the parents to lecture them on sexual morality where they themselves are having an affair. It is also equally ironic that Ben finds out about his daughter's sexual activity around the same time while he is waiting to have sex with Janey in Janey's house (Carver's residence) when her daughter comes to the house to make out with Janey's older son. Then he speaks of this event to his wife with a lame excuse for his presence in Janey's house causing his wife Elena (Joan Allen) to suspect that he is having an affair. A very young Tobey Maguire, Paul Hood, brother of promiscuous Wendy Hood, is deeply in love with Libbet Casey, who seems sweet to Paul but in fact she is pretentious and immature. There are three main stories in the movie. 1) Affair of Ben and Janey and the following events after Ben's wife Elena (Joan Allen) finds out about the affair, 2) Wendy and her relationship to two brothers, 3) Paul's relationship to Libbet which has little room in the entire picture compared to first two stories. It is claimed that events take a turn after the ice storm but in fact they take a turn after Elena finds about the affair of her husband. Ice Storm was generally a very successful picture but I have one critique to make. The Ice Storm was not really ice storm at all. I expected to see more Ice and Snow because that is expression given in the movie. However, scenes related to Ice Storm were poorly made. For example in the scene where Elena and Jim Carver are walking towards the car, they slide slightly due to the supposedly icy ground but there is almost no ice on the ground. In fact, you can see that it is raining. Then they reach the car whose doors and windows are frozen. How can there be a rain and ice storm at the same time? If there is rain, then the temperature is not low enough to create ice. You only see frozen tree branches but that's the only ice you see in the movie. This is a very small detail and it doesn't ruin the story but somehow it bothered me.

Were the 70's Really that Bad?

Fascinating, how the culture's global assessment of the '70s seems to get more negative from year to year. As someone old enough to remember, I felt this film caught beautifully the special quality of the alienation between parents and children in those days; the anger of middle-aged women caught in old-style marriages that suddenly weren't working and the confusion of middle class men who were working hard to pay the bills, the way their fathers had told them they should, but were suddenly confronted with wives who wouldn't sleep with them anymore (or were sleeping with the neighbors) and children who wouldn't talk to them.I think though, that with all the "reassessing" that's going on, there is a real danger that the tremendous energy and sheer frolicsome exuberance of those times may be forgotten. It's true that my family and nearly all my friends' families were more or less dysfunctional then. Still, I had a hell of a time. If I had a choice, I'd rather be depressed and lonely in the '70s when I could console myself by going to a friendly neighborhood orgy or anti-war demonstration (pick your poison) than in the '90s when people just lock themselves up at home and take Prozac until the darkness recedes sufficiently that they can face their computer screens again..

Very few movies have stayed with me as long

I didn't actually 'like' this movie, as much as I appreciated all the elements that made such an impression on me. I can't of many movies that completely captured the feeling of a place and time in the world. All of the acting is incredible. Its hard to recommend this movie, but it certainly is worth seeing.

Another Ang Lee masterpiece

If you loved Crouching Tiger, not just for the beautiful dance/fight scenes, but for the insight into love and relationships, then you'll love Ice Storm.

I must warn you, it'll rip your heart out. So don't watch if you are looking for a happy, light film.

Wow, what a completely under rated movie

This movie, "The Ice Storm", is completely powerful even in it's quietest of moments. The ending scene is completely... revolutionary. I don't know.

It is almost perfect in every shot - either with the beautifully cinematographed kiss scene between two teenagers, or the scene where a young boy balances on an icy diving board, where we sense tragedy coming.

It all makes sense in the end. It's a powerful film about confusion - confusion about marriage, confusion about adultry, confusion about who we are, confusion about what we do - and the way director Ang Lee handles it is so sad.

It's sad because it was completely underrated. It had an amazing cast - so amazing I was completely stunned. Christina Ricci, Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Elijah Wood, Tobey Maguire, Sigourney Weaver, Katie Holmes...

It is a great movie on many levels.

And most ultimately it will be different for all viewers; because it's tone isn't for everyone. Rent or watch on TV - but for me, it's a definite buy.

Under The Storm

THE ICE STORM **** Rick Moody's screenplay seems somewhat pretentious and unstable because its themes (marital issue, promiscuity, adolescence) aren't explored very deeply before it goes on to the next one - making it seem as though all he really wants is to give his characters emotional charge, or lack thereof - and not ending with quite the resolution it needed. However, the basic gist of the story still penetrates through as the film establishes itself, about life in 1973 Conneticut, where the barriers and rifts that form, amoral events that take place, and new facets of life being explored between all of the characters effect each of them differently. All of the events take place over the course of a weekend as an ice storm forms. Rick Moody and Ang Lee, a gifted director, work well together to coat 'The Ice Storm' with plenty of creative elements of film technique, but there just isn't much solid backbone to base it on. Four out of five stars.

Take that 1970's!

The Ice Storm is one of the all time great films in the past 25 years if not 50.


The director Ang Lee is easily one of the best Hollywood directors working today. Lee is special because he gets the most of out of his actors. The performances here are stirring and mesmerizing.


This film teases you and then slaps you upside down by it's stirring climax. Quite simply, one of the best endings ever!