Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

sharky_55 Would Ang Lee's The Ice Storm be as effective in a bright summer's day? I think not. The opening has a ghostly, near empty train diligently chugging its way through the icy winter landscape, as a sort of futile attempt to bat back the elements that buffet these suburban families. It shines its headlights out in vain. Other vehicles, including the numerous cars parked on the street too fall to this chilling weather. Would the characters feels as frozen and trapped if it was not below and zero, thus forcing them to stay indoors to keep warm and confront the utter banality of their middle class lives. The answer is no. Ang Lee has composed a quiet, frozen little picture of this town, and how it has rendered its inhabitants frustrated and static. We do not ever learn of the setting's name; it could be anywhere in 70s America. The production design and costuming has a particularly dulling effect. It feels as if even in the cold weather they are trying to maintain stylish through fashion and decor...these bright colours might pop in the sunlight but there is none of that around, and thus staring endlessly at the same wardrobe and kitchen set they begin to realise the complete facile nature of their lives. Some have long resigned to it - see the long line of gray trenchcoats congregating at the train station for another day of 9-5. So what do they do but resort to a wide range of wild vices, the usual escape from the clean, uncluttered and nuclear image of the American dream. Sex in the abundant theme here. A key swap party is one of those things that sound spicy and exciting in theory but cannot suddenly be thrust into a community as miserable and anxious as this one and bring about a change or epiphany. Their wide eyes and fake smiles persist agonisingly up until the actual choosing of the keys, where their wild personas begin to crack and we can almost hear their brains churning and thinking "So this is really happening then...". The film's best moment is that one couple that 'accidentally' chooses themselves, and feigns a small fuss and quickly scurries away before anyone can object - none of these adults can readily and openly admit that they are not nearly as emotionally stable enough for this kind of game, so this couple sees its chance and runs with it. Another brilliant moment is shortly before that, where a plumper woman fishes out a set of keys and waits a little longer for someone to confess or to bite. It manages to hit that tender note of being both a little funny and a little sad at the same time. What was wild and adventurous in their minds has warped into something stifling and uncomfortable and it takes a moment for them to realise it. No doubt that no couple's affair that night lived up to what they had been promised. Opposing them of course we have the kids who are ironically, the more mature ones about their sexuality. This theme is a little on the nose. We can see that the adults are pretending to be risqué but really rigidly uncompromising without having Ricci parade her body around to any boy who cares to look/feel. Lee somewhat tries to get away with this by masking it with the sexual curiosity of young children, but his objective is pretty clear. He pushes these scenes together for this purpose; Janey chastises the kids for being so sexually explicit and open, warning "our bodies betray us" and yet later she is in bed with someone that satisfies her on a purely physical level (and perhaps not even that by the film's end). Ben does the same when he discovers them in the basement, deflecting his own infidelities by telling off her daughter for being so sexually frank. Meanwhile Tobey Maguire is the third counterpoint - the dopey, naive freshman who has a girl's mouth deposited right onto his crotch, but knows better than to take advantage. How long before he too is frustrated and bound by the confines of the small town? I cannot avoid a mention of Revolutionary Road. Yates wrote about a different time period, but the feelings are all the same. And yet that story of the Wheelers feels more developed, more natural. Their ambition to flee the quaint little suburban setting is the actual thing that destroys them, and it is tragic in the way they have blinded themselves and yearned for things far, far away whilst ignoring the material right in front of them. In The Ice Storm the characters are also pretending. But their demise doesn't come from within, from their own mistakes and self-delusions. It comes from the titular phenomenon itself, as Mikey is struck down by the electrical wires. This is the cheapest way to invoke tragedy, to pick the most innocent character of them all and to kill him off arbitrarily. In the end they are sobbing, but because it has occurred as a freak accident removed from their actions it feels needlessly cruel rather than truly tragic. The punishment is not earned.

Mr-Fusion This popped into my brain a few times during "The Ice Storm": with a movie like this, one wrong move and it could've gone "American Beauty" pretentious. It doesn't, to its credit. I feel like I'm supposed to actively dislike these character, but they just felt complex. Completely unrelatable, but at least not obnoxious. This movie never struck me on an emotional level, and even the tragedy that befalls one of the supporting characters is subtle and understated. I kinda wonder if maturity is the key to fully enjoying this movie. Either that or becoming emotionally dysfunctional, and here's hoping that doesn't happen.But aside from that, I think any of us can appreciate the authentic period detail, moody vibe and exceptional ensemble cast. On that level, this movie soars.6/10

SnoopyStyle It's Thanksgiving 1973 New Canaan, Connecticut. Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) is going home to his dysfunctional parents (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen) and promiscuous sister Wendy (Christina Ricci). Their best friends are the Carvers (Sigourney Weaver, Jamey Sheridan, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd). The two families share more than simple friendship. Paul is in love with rich schoolmate Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes) but his roommate Francis Davenport (David Krumholtz) is moving in.The theme of ice and cold infuses the whole movie. It's a world of disconnected people and their secrets. The actors are all superb from the adults to all the kids. It does need the connective tissues to make this flow more. The disconnections from the characters just build and build until the literal ice storm.

LeonLouisRicci Frigidity Notwithstanding, there is Something About this Cold and Hard Look-In on Sexual Behaviors, Circa 1973. People's Personal Beliefs and Peccadilloes about Said Subject are Never that Interesting and Almost Always Embarrassing to Watch Unless the Observer is a Certified Voyeur.In this Movie Sex is the Thing in all Things and the Discovering of and Experimenting with are Laid Out for all to Intimately and Intensely View as the Cringe Factor Creeps in and Seeking a Place to Hide becomes a Way to Escape this Uncomfortable and Pointless Display of Less than Insightful and More than Common Knowledge about Carnal Knowledge is Presented as Profound and Artsy Cinema.Sure the Early Seventies was an Era that the Free Form and Uninhibited Behavior of the Baby Boomers Counter Culture Revolution was Finding its Way into the Shagged Living Rooms of Middle Aged Neurotics and into the Lives of Youngsters who hadn't come of Age in the Mid to Late Sixties. But......all this Seems more Interesting in the Mind and on Paper than in a Movie. An Ultimately Boring Movie that is Downbeat and Dull with a Septic Sensuality that didn't need an Ice Storm to stop the Molecules from Moving. They were already Stationary to Begin with and this is Like Staring at a Wall Void of some Really-Cool Posters.