A Tempestade de Gelo

A showcase of the director Ang Lee's work. It is an ambitious psychological drama that strives to capture the crisis of moral values through the gradual deterioration of two marriages. The film has a refined form, which I give 5 stars, but in terms of content, it lags behind. The emotional impact of several strong scenes, such as the wife swapping through key drawing, is greater than all seasons of Californication combined, and it is nice that the film does not try to exploit this chaos and looks at the actions of the film characters critically, but the raging elements and the fateful accident were supposed to be the catalyst of conflict and drive their heroes towards catharsis. Here, it feels more like a dampening element that masks the fact that none of those who went back to their homes changed their characteristics and behavior. The weak one remains a coward, the self-centered remains selfish, and the hypocrite remains a hypocrite. In terms of the cast, it is a luxurious affair. Just for this, The Ice Storm is worth seeing. And there is one more thing that makes Ice Storm interesting. It is one of the last Hollywood films where smoking tobacco is depicted as a common part of the middle-generation lifestyle. American cinema once played a significant role in promoting tobacco on screen, but in the mid-90s, studio executives sensed a change in the social climate and, with their own hypocrisy, caused cigarettes to disappear from films before any pressure could come from activist organizations. As the protagonist of the film Thank You for Smoking says, if a smoker appears in a movie today, they are either a psychopath or a European. Overall impression: 90%. (11/01/2013)

Why didn't someone explain to Danna that he was not composing music for a Chinese historical film, but for an American psychological film? Well, not actually very psychological…and not at all as chilling as the metaphors that it uses (family members are separated by sheets of ice and their relationships slowly approach the freezing point). If life wears you down a bit sometimes, watching The Ice Storm doesn’t. Though it outwardly addresses major issues, it’s banal and suffers from literalism (what do you call a party that’s a key element of the narrative? A key party!). Ang Lee takes care to ensure that every shot makes us aware that the story is set in a period when the United States had definitively lost its innocence, but with the exception of the reference to Deep Throat and the bizarre “Fuck Nixon” scene (or whatever you want to call it), I saw no reason why the whole relationship drama couldn’t have been set a decade earlier or later. The actors perform according to expectations, but the behaviour of their characters doesn’t make a lot of sense and is rather lacking in authenticity and uncalculated emotion. Now I would like to cleanse my palate with some Altman-style vitriol (Short Cuts, perhaps?). 60% (17/09/2012)

The actress is quite convincing, the chemistry between the man and woman is average, but it’s very good between the husband and wife, albeit not completely believable. Ang Lee portrays the problem of adolescence very sensitively and many scenes are heart-wrenching. The intimacy is immense. The adult world is not as excellent and there are holes in the story, especially the malfunctioning third weel in the form of Sigourney Weaver, whose character is not strong or distinctive enough. But it is definitely worth watching. Ang Lee is a man of many visions and he was close to fulfilling one here. (07/06/2008)

The unbearable lightness of hypocrisy. Similar to American Beauty, the characters are trapped in coldness (both meteorological and otherwise) and the chosen methods of escapism only lead to further destruction. I wouldn't fault the lack of emotions, as the theme of desiccation in dysfunctional families runs through cinema regardless of historical period and political situation. What bothered me was the burden of artificiality, the inappropriate "Asian" musical motif, and the difficulties in translating the book's dialogue. General Lee offered a long artillery preparation, but the frontal assault never came. (09/02/2021)

A cynical materialization of the inherent comicality of interpersonal relationships. We see the ridiculousness of upper-middle-class marital etudes everywhere, but The Ice Storm offers no relief even in the innocent humping of socially incarcerated teens, whose loves and relationships are portrayed here with equal picaresque and brokenness with virtually no possibility of repair. This is aided by the cast of then-young freaks Maguire, Ricci, Hann-Byrd, and Wood, all of whom come across as terribly creepy here. "I’m back!" "You were gone?". (28/03/2021)