ThiefHott Too much of everything

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

fredroyer I've been on something of an Ang Lee retrospective lately. He made this film before Ride with the Devil and Crouching Tiger, films where he really let the camera dance.Since the camera can't dance here (it's purely a kitchen sink drama - all interiors for the most part), something else has to serve as the reflexive action for the viewer.The film is rooted in Christina Ricci's performance. Her character is a liar, and she lies through the entire movie except at the end where she comforts the other brother.The framework is the 70s and Watergate. As Watergate teaches us, it's the lie that gets you. Every character in this movie is lying to everyone else.

ComedyFan2010 The movie is very depressing but very well done. I don't know if it may be deeper than what I got from it. It is pretty much about two families where adults fell out of communication with each other. They try to make their lives more fun with the new found freedoms of the 70's but it doesn't help because they lack connection.The kids are in the meantime also exploring their sexuality. And it also gives one a sad vibe as lacking any real emotions and excitement that comes with adolescence.The actors are all great. Actually the ones who played the teens ended up all being very well known. Actually they weren't new to acting with this movie anyways as they have been in business since childhood and so their acting already was experienced. Christina Ricci somehow manages to creep me out. Her sexual explorations make me feel like she is making something really wrong, even though she is a 14 years old and more like an innocent teenager starting life than a creep. The tragic end at the same time makes one wonder if this loss will turn around the lives of these two families after they witnessed the fragility of life and discovered how important it is not to miss communication with each other.

futurelinkadvisor It's not a bad movie, I just found it annoying. It's supposed to be deep and artsy and deal with real issues. But I just wanted to slap half the characters and say "Wow, you've got a lot of money, grow up and act like adults." I thought the kids were most entertaining but the adults acted selfish almost like they never should have had kids in the first place. The acting is good, I enjoyed a lot of it except the parts that dealt with the stupid adult behavior. They definitely did a good job with the 70s feel and I think that's what I find most annoying. They took the stereotypes from the 70s and made adult characters out of these stereotypes. Most people didn't act like that, there were some but not most.

itamarscomix It's easy to compare The Ice Storm to American Beauty and Happiness, both of which also dealt with disillusionment and the disintegration of the American Dream and the traditional family cell in the suburbs, and to a lesser extent The Sweet Hereafter which explored some similar themes in small town Canada. The Ice Storm is as cynical as those other films, but it's much more subtle in masking its sardonicism, and has aged much better than American Beauty, which had the appearance of a masterpiece at its release but looks flat and shallow now. The people in The Ice Storm feel more real and more human than the ones in American Beauty and Happiness; and the film walks that fine line between character-based slice-of-life storytelling and metaphorical satire, which works only because the viewer cares for the characters and their fates, while also absorbing the bigger issues under the surface.That would not work without a strong ensemble cast; the actors in The Ice Storm are not among my favorites, yet they all outdo themselves and produce sympathetic, powerful, convincing performances - Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver are all at their very best, and the younger actors (Elijah Wood, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Adam Hann-Byrd and - amazingly - even Katie Holmes) all deliver too. In contrast with the (intentionally) despicable characters in Happiness and American Beauty, these actors form a group of very average people that the viewer relates to and cares about - but the dysfunction and sickness is right there beneath the surface, waiting for the right catastrophe to explode.There's an undefinable something that stops The Ice Storm short of becoming one of my favorites. The ending fits the mood of the rest of the film, but doesn't offer the catharsis that is needed, and it left me with a bitter taste. In the end, I found myself wishing that the film said more, and left more of a mark; the fact that it isn't often recognized as one of the best films of the 90's is simply because there's something not quite memorable about it. It's incredibly engaging throughout, though, and is definitely one of the strongest dramas of its time, beautifully shot, and a gem that's well worth discovering.