Staring Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci
Screenplay by James Schamus
Based on the book by Rick Moody
Directed by Ang Lee
Production Year 1997
Running time 113 minutes
Thanksgiving 1973. In New Canaan, a small town in Connecticut, two families are having dinner together. The adults seated around the table discuss Watergate, wife swapping and Deep Throat. One by one we get to know the members of these families and discover the secrets they share.
Ben and Janey are having an affair, Elena is bored and unsure of how to change her life so tries shoplifting, 14 year old Wendy is into sex games and fellow teenager Mikey plays along with her, Paul is experimenting with drugs.The lives of these wealthy dissatisfied people coming to terms with the end of the 1960s and looking for fulfilment reach a powerful and dramatic crossroads one night when a dangerous ice storm hits the town.
The director is Ang Lee whose extraordinary and multi-faceted career includes Eat, Drink Man Woman, Sense And Sensibility, Crouching Tiger -Hidden Dragon, The Hulk, Brokeback Mountain and most recently Life Of Pi. He choreographs James Schamus' subtle and literate script beautifully in a film that is both a blackly comic period satire and a powerful family melodrama.
The historical detail is perfect and the acting by a talented ensemble cast is dazzling. The Ice Storm was a financial flop at the time of release but now looks like one of the finest American films of its time.
