Lee infuses the film with just enough humor to keep it from becoming unremittingly bleak, but the overall impact is harsh and caustic.
Comment
02/27/01
The Ice Storm (1997)
81
%
Tomatometer
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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... [More]
Starring: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire
Director: Ang Lee
Reviews for The Ice Storm
It's unfortunate that as capable a team as director Lee and screenwriter-producer Schamus should have become fascinated with such unpromising material.
02/14/01
Top Critic[D]espite good performances and fine intentions, ultimately fails.
01/01/00
The Ice Storm has delightful moments of humour, but it is essentially a sombre film. But don’t let that put you off.
01/01/00
No review available.
01/01/00
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.
01/01/00
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.
01/01/00
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.
01/01/00
One of the best films I've seen.
01/01/00
To be admired for its icy observations of suburban life.
01/01/00
[An] impressive adaptation of the Rick Moody novel.
01/01/00
Lee is adept at creating a vivid sense of place, using numerous establishing and tracking shots to make the wistful, forlorn atmosphere of New Canaan come alive.
01/01/00
The Ice Storm proves that a movie can most effectively and entertainingly study the disintegration of a society without soap-opera melodramatics or blazingly photographed uproars.
01/01/00
[Ang Lee] aptly underscores the depressing gloom of the piece through the dark, blue-tinted cinematography of the talented Frederick Elmes, and the nervously restrained low-key performances of his superb ensemble of actors.
01/01/00
The Ice Storm is perceptive about people, relationships, and human nature, and there's not a single moment in the entire 112 minute running length that rings false.
01/01/00
most effective at capturing the desperately hip attitude that seemed to hang like incense smoke around upper-middle-class/lower-middle-age adults in the early years of the Me Decade.
01/01/00
Lee daringly chooses to keep his story's motivational mysteries unexplained, leaving this richly observed film open to the viewer's assessments. Yet the sense of imbalance is ever-present and strong.
01/01/00
Top CriticOddly enough, the Taiwanese-born Lee manages to capture the look and sound of the '70s better (at least more accurately) than Paul Thomas Anderson did in Boogie Nights.
01/01/00
A little too slow for my own jive.
01/01/00
This is one of those films in which nothing seems to be 'happening,' but in retrospect, when it's over, everything seems to have happened.
01/01/00
Latest News for The Ice Storm
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