In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hood family is skidding out of control. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.76/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Ang Lee
Production
Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Good Machine
Cast
Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Jamey Sheridan, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood, Adam Hann-Byrd, Michael Cumpsty, Katie Holmes, Henry Czerny, David Krumholtz, Kate Burton, William Cain, Maia Danziger, Michael Egerman, Christine Farrell, Glenn Fitzgerald, Allison Janney, Jonathan Freeman
Curator Review
Verdict
A cold, mournful suburban drama that turns family dysfunction, sexual confusion, and 1970s malaise into something quietly devastating. It’s especially rewarding if you like ensemble acting, period detail, and stories where emotional repression slowly curdles into tragedy.
Best for
fans of bleak but compassionate family dramas
viewers interested in 1970s suburban disillusionment
people who like ensemble pieces with strong performances
audiences drawn to slow-burn emotional fallout
Skip if
you want a plot-driven movie with clear catharsis
you dislike infidelity, teen sexuality, and family collapse
you prefer warmer or more hopeful dramas
you need a fast-paced or highly dramatic thriller
Overview
The Ice Storm is one of those films that feels emotionally sealed in ice: precise, elegant, and deeply sad. Ang Lee observes a suburban family and the adults around them with remarkable restraint, finding humiliation, loneliness, and yearning in almost every scene. Nothing here is exaggerated, which makes the damage feel more real.
Worth noting
The period setting is not just decoration; it’s part of the film’s argument about a country and a family in transition. Sexual liberation, consumer comfort, and emotional emptiness all sit uneasily together, and the movie keeps showing how the children absorb what the adults refuse to confront. The result is less a scandal movie than an elegy.
Bottom line
It’s strongest as an ensemble drama, with performances that make even small gestures feel loaded. If you’re in the mood for something polished, adult, and unsparing, this is a standout late-90s drama. If you want comfort, it is absolutely not that movie.
Top Letterboxd reviews
David Sims (5★) · 859 likes
p much the saddest movie ever made but also ALL THE TEEN ACTORS HAVE SUCH CUTE LIL CHUBBY CHEEKS
Leighton Trent (4.5★) · 494 likes
Winter storms. A president's impeachment. The emotional death of the nuclear family. This is the only kind of wholesome American Fucked Up Family Fun that Ang Lee could give us. And it's just about perfect (give or take a football scene here or there).
I miss the stark dramas of the [late] 90's that just did not care if you liked them or not because they were painting a truth that you can't find anymore in the kind of indie… more
Daniel Crooke (5★) · 463 likes
all the kids are trying to be grown-ups and all the grown-ups are trying to be kids; meanwhile obsolescence and malaise set in
Brian Tallerico (5★) · 426 likes
An elegy for the end of an era that feels more mournful because of how much Lee refuses to mock these characters for their flaws, embracing their insecurities instead. The tragedy of the final act resonates so much more than the average suburbanites-behaving-badly genre entry because we can feel the sadness throughout the film. And his work with ensemble was arguably never better. Everyone here strikes just the right chord. It's a great film.
Auteur (5★) · 339 likes
Ang Lee is simply one of the greatest directors alive. Last year's Life Of Pi solidified that for me. I would compare him to Stanley Kubrick in the way he is able to adapt to many different genres, and master them. Examining any three of his films in a row, in this case 1997's The Ice Storm, an atmospheric, fatalist drama of 1970's New England suburbanite family dysfunction, sandwiched between 1995's Jane Austen period comedy Sense And Sensibility, and 1999's… more Ang Lee is simply one of the greatest directors alive. Last year's Life Of Pi solidified that for me. I would compare him to Stanley Kubrick in the way he is able to adapt to many different genres, and master them. Examining any three of his films in a row, in this case 1997's The Ice Storm, an atmospheric, fatalist drama of 1970's New England suburbanite family dysfunction, sandwiched between 1995's Jane Austen period comedy Sense And Sensibility, and 1999's… more