1973, suburban Connecticut: middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink, etc., find their lives out of control.Film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film Two Thumbs Up, with Gene Siskel calling it the best film of the year, and Roger Ebert calling it Ang Lee's best film yet. Siskel was probably overstating things, while Ebert was probably right. Even now (2015), this remains a largely overlooked film despite Lee's direction and the many actors who were big or have since become bigger.Personally, I really liked the comic book (Fantastic Four) angle, and wish this had played a bigger role. But I will take what I can get and I think it was well done.

Ang Lee really managed to grasp the moods, torments, emotions of this gallery of characters and this basically is the greatest satisfaction of The Ice Storm. But what this movie lacks is a real plot and a clearer direction, indeed the scenario resembles a patchwork of disconnected, rather uneven scenes and story lines that are not that productive. There is also too many characters which induces a inevitable dilution of the story, not to mention that the common denominator, the sexual liberation in the 70's, is not the most interesting. Ultimately, the only thing that really stands out in this movie, whose cinematography is excellent by the way, is its genuine sensibility.

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.

Yeah yeah, so Americans are desperate for the rest of the world to believe that they lead terrible depressing meaningless lives. It is so boring when all the systems work well. It is so terrible to live in beautiful neighborhoods with no squalor and slums. Boo hoo! Christina RICCI was a volcanic talent back then. Jeez! It is a shame that great young actresses like RICCI and BIRCH did not hit big time in Hollywood. Sigourney Weaver was smoking hot. This film had the creamy layer of all the actors who would later go on to become big stars in Hollywood. It is not a bad film overall. But I had a hard time accepting that these people were sad and dysfunctional.(6/10)