The Ice Storm (1997)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jennifer X

  
  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.

• Randy T

  
  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… More
  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.

• Dan S

  
  A near-masterpiece of a film concerning a few families in middle-class 1973 Connecticut whose lives intersect during Thanksgiving Weekend when an ice storm rocks the quiet town they reside in, as well as the extremely suppressed emotions coursing through each one of them - which in… More
  A near-masterpiece of a film concerning a few families in middle-class 1973 Connecticut whose lives intersect during Thanksgiving Weekend when an ice storm rocks the quiet town they reside in, as well as the extremely suppressed emotions coursing through each one of them - which in turn unleashes a storm of sexuality and self-pity that is not for the faint of heart. Ang Lee competently captures the look and feel of the 1970's, and details each one of his characters with excellence and subtle brilliance. It's not a fun movie by any stretch of the imagination, and it occasionally loses its hypnotizing grip on its audience, but for this most part this is superb stuff. The conclusion of the film is just absolutely perfect, despite it being incredibly tragic and near tear-jerking. The final ten minutes of this film are simply a master-class in subtle facial expressions and characters trying to keep the lid on their understandably explosive emotions. Deconstructing the seemingly "ideal" middle-class is not as original a theme anymore thanks to other great movies like "Happiness" and "American Beauty" (and the TV show "Mad Men"), but 'Storm' remains the undeniable most significant film concerning the subject.

• Drew S

  
  Acutely observed but dispassionate, it's taken me a long time to formulate what to write about The Ice Storm because I didn't have any particularly strong reactions to it. Kevin Kline is a literate but utterly unexciting actor; Joan Allen, normally reliable, is tensed beyond… More
  Acutely observed but dispassionate, it's taken me a long time to formulate what to write about The Ice Storm because I didn't have any particularly strong reactions to it. Kevin Kline is a literate but utterly unexciting actor; Joan Allen, normally reliable, is tensed beyond the point of much subtlety, though she's squarely in her wheel house as a tight-lipped, forcibly repressed woman and certainly does not disappoint. Surprisingly, the performance of note here is Christina Ricci, depicting a preternaturally sharp interpretation of a sexually confused young woman, far too intelligent with no outlet for it since the departure of her brother. Elijah Wood is also strong in a character that isn't quite as fleshed out. Several of the children here, in fact, are borderline autistic for no apparent reason. Short of Ricci, the portrayals here seem to somewhat miss the mark of what normal adolescence is like. Though their behaviors cohere, their personalities don't. Tobey Maguire's subplot is well-balanced with the rest of the film, saying a surprising amount in a very small amount of time - he hits his notes very assuredly, as a smart man not quite brave enough to go the distance with an also impressive Katie Holmes. Perhaps the greatest disappointment is The Ice Storm's lack of focus on the Carvers, especially when Sigourney Weaver would have been a much-needed bit of levity in this incessantly heavy film. The film's lack of interest in their characters, often utilized as sounding boards for their children or neighbors, makes the ending feel entropic and not entirely effective. This isn't to say that The Ice Storm doesn't feature strong figures, because it absolutely does. I just couldn't help but feel as I watched that they could have taken them even farther, and maybe have given the film a little more focus in general. The parts are there, but they aren't assembled quite right. Quite like something from IKEA, it requires considerable construction, but it's sleek and practical.

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  Cast: Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Henry Czerny, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd, David Krumholtz, Jamey Sheridan, Kate Burton, William Cain, Michael Cumpsty, Maia Danziger, Katie Holmes, Allison Janney Director: Ang Lee Summary:… More
  Cast: Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Henry Czerny, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd, David Krumholtz, Jamey Sheridan, Kate Burton, William Cain, Michael Cumpsty, Maia Danziger, Katie Holmes, Allison Janney Director: Ang Lee Summary: Prep-schooler Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) returns home for Thanksgiving weekend and finds his family about to implode. While his father (Kevin Kline) tries to douse his sorrows with booze and infidelity, Paul's mother (Joan Allen) looks for answers in self-help books. The experimentation and liberalism that defined the 1970s lead to ruin as the family's environs literally freeze over during a freak storm in this insightful drama. My Thoughts: "First off I want to acknowledge what a great cast this film has. So much talent in one film that it just had to be great, and it was. The adults and teenagers are all going through changes and transitions in the film. The story is surrounded by these two families, (Hood and Carver) who are sexually involved with each other in one way or another. But none of them are getting any pleasure from the sexual encounters. It's mostly just frustration to humiliation for them. Then with the arrival of 'The Ice Storm', their lives are to be forever changed with the passing of the storm and the dawning of a new day. The movie evokes the loss of innocence. Some experimenting with losing it, to others trying to get it back. Great film, great cast, great acting, and a great script. Definitely worth taking a look at."

• First L

  
  Ang Lee's 70s period piece version of "American Beauty", is a tale of disaffected teens and their equally disaffected parents. The parents are too wrapped up in their own disfunction to be parents, either because of illicit affairs (sigourney weaver and kevin kline) or… More
  Ang Lee's 70s period piece version of "American Beauty", is a tale of disaffected teens and their equally disaffected parents. The parents are too wrapped up in their own disfunction to be parents, either because of illicit affairs (sigourney weaver and kevin kline) or they resent their spouses for their affairs. The sins of the parents are also found in the children though, as daughter Christina Ricci finds herself confused sexually while making out with both Elijah Wood and his younger brother. Meanwhile, her older brother (Tobey Maguire) is just as ineffectual as his father. I'm not really sure what the purpose of The Ice Storm is. It's not a terribly fun movie, and if it's meant to give some deeper insight into life, it needs to go beyond the cliches it so often returns to. Like many of Lee's movies (Finding Woodstock, for example) the characters don't seem to have a whole lot of control over their own destinies, things just "sort of happen" to them. The mistakes they make aren't necessarily mistakes, but they're almost always of their own doing. The Ice Storm seems to want to suggest "shit happens" and we should just roll with it. As Elijah Wood's character says, we're breathing in the molecules we smell, in effect consuming smells, and we don't necesssarily always have control over what we eat. There seems to be an attempt to draw a correlation from that to life and our relationships with one another. Even if we can't control who we're related to, we can control how those people make us feel. So the Ice Storm might be deeper than what I can give it credit for, but that doesn't necessarily make it valid. Ang Lee might have a unique perspective, but I can't necessarily get behind it.

• Derek D

  
  Headed up by 3 class actors/actresses with Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci in tow, this film concerns a 70's key party during an impending ice storm. Add other minor plotlines to it (Kline cheating on his wife, etc) and director Ang Lee and it's an excellent movie. Not too… More
  Headed up by 3 class actors/actresses with Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci in tow, this film concerns a 70's key party during an impending ice storm. Add other minor plotlines to it (Kline cheating on his wife, etc) and director Ang Lee and it's an excellent movie. Not too fast, but doesn't drag on, either.

• Jason O

  
  Weird

• Leigh R

  
  Emotionally intense and messed up.

• Bruce B

  
  Never heard of this one before and I have no idea how it got on my to see list, but its a Film that captured the 1969-1974 time frame, to my surprise Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) plays in this movie and one of the early scenes is he's riding on a train reading a Fantastic Four… More
  Never heard of this one before and I have no idea how it got on my to see list, but its a Film that captured the 1969-1974 time frame, to my surprise Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) plays in this movie and one of the early scenes is he's riding on a train reading a Fantastic Four comic. But the film shows the life of two families in 1970, notice I didn't say dysfunctional, hell we were all dysfunctional back then but because we all were, we were considered normal. Its a good film, would not be enjoyed by most, you have to have a flair for the unusual, like Harold & Maude have to be in your favorites list. My My how Christina Ricci has changed. Its worth 4 stars.

• Cherry D

  
  [playing with a soldier doll] Wendy: "Well, looks like somebody got to his private parts before us." Sandy: "Communist Viet Cong" Wendy: "They left it in the jungle" Really liked it, don't know why I hadn't heard of it before. With a dream cast… More
  [playing with a soldier doll] Wendy: "Well, looks like somebody got to his private parts before us." Sandy: "Communist Viet Cong" Wendy: "They left it in the jungle" Really liked it, don't know why I hadn't heard of it before. With a dream cast and brilliant acting, it takes a cynical and sardonic look inside the lives of two middle-class American families in the 70's. Every relationship portrayed is disfunctional in one way or another but you still seem able to sympathise with all of them on some level. The kids are amazing, (particularly Christina Ricci playing the precocious Wendy) all suffering through the pains of adolescence and at the same time trying to find themselves, adds important emotional dimensions. The way the parents deal with their kids borders on amusing at times, and you can't help but feel if it wasn't for their lack or good parenting skills, the events that ocurred could have been avoided. But as you'll see it's all too little, too late. Darkly amusing, traumatic, beautiful, sentimental but never unrealistic.

• Michael S

  
  *On my "best of the 1990s" list.

• jay n

  
  so much talent wasted, a dull dull film!

• Michael G

  
  Skip VH-1's I love the 70's and watch this instead.

• Dean M

  
  Interesting drama story of the family in 1973 and surprised to see Katie Holmes appeared in her first movie role.

• Rico Z

  
  One of Ang Lee's best films. Sigourney Weaver and Joan Allen are two of my favorite actresses and they both deliver stellar performances in this family drama set in the 70s.

• Alec B

  
  How this film walked out of 1997 without a single oscar nomination is beyond me. This may be Ang Lee's best film. The cast is all top notch, and the film is an interesting exploration of two upper-middle class families in the early 1970s. The kids are of coarse completely… More
  How this film walked out of 1997 without a single oscar nomination is beyond me. This may be Ang Lee's best film. The cast is all top notch, and the film is an interesting exploration of two upper-middle class families in the early 1970s. The kids are of coarse completely confused about their own sexuality, but then again so are the adults who pretend like they know it all. The Ice Storm that comes down on this small quiet town and awakens them to the falsehoods and complexities of their own lives, but at the same time it doesn't wrap things up or give them any easy answers. This is a must see.

• Lea L

  
  1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control. .......... The Ice Storm is a dissection of suburban life with a `winter storm' . It has a great cast and for that reason it can't simply focus on… More
  1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control. .......... The Ice Storm is a dissection of suburban life with a `winter storm' . It has a great cast and for that reason it can't simply focus on one character. If one sub-plot reaches a climax they quickly switch over to another story, so it's observational but not participatory. Despite the fact that there are a number of different characters, they all manage to nicely develop. Overall, The Ice Storm is a impressive and underrated film. .......... ' When you think about it, it's not easy to keep from just wandering out of life. It's like someone's always leaving the door open to the next world, and if you aren't paying attention you could just walk through it, and then you've died. That's why in your dreams it's like you're standing in that doorway... and the dying people and the newborn people pass by you... and brush up against you as they come in and out of the world during the night. You get spun around, and in the morning...it takes a while to find your way back into the world. '

• Brian R

  
  Ang Lee's dark film. The real ice storm is between the characters, even in the 1970's people were still doing things that were considered taboo. In the age of the Internet what was taboo then is considered normal now.

• Henrik S

  
  Like looking at a painting through broken glass. The movie portrays two dysfunctional families in an American somwhere in the 70ies. Loaded with a stellar ensemble, the movie feels like an Ibsen play, a familiy saga. Yet, the movie carefully steers around any bombastic stories or… More
  Like looking at a painting through broken glass. The movie portrays two dysfunctional families in an American somwhere in the 70ies. Loaded with a stellar ensemble, the movie feels like an Ibsen play, a familiy saga. Yet, the movie carefully steers around any bombastic stories or events to create a tender, yet subtly grizzly depiction of despair, the search for love and all the other little human gearworks that make us so utterly ridicilous. The direction is unintrusive, but utilizes the location and weather very effectually. The movie reminds me of other "glimpse" movies, such as Magnolia or Night on Earth. H.

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