It’s Cold Outside

But it’s none too warm inside either in Ang Lee’s well crafted, elegant, but frosty exposition of cosy, suburban middle class Americana standing at the wrong end of the Sixties sexual revolution and facing the slow decay of the American Dream.

Lee’s film charts the quiet dysfunction of two affluent Connecticut middle class families during a real (and pivotal) ice storm that occurred during the Thanksgiving festivities of 1973. But against a wider backdrop of an America mired in and disillusioned by Watergate, and with the spectre of Vietnam, don’t be fooled that this is the only “ice storm” on the horizon.

From adults lost in a world of confusion, unfulfilling infidelities and hypocrisy, to the burgeoning sexuality of their equally lost children, The Ice Storm lays bare the complicated lives and entanglements within and between the two families, whilst at the same time throwing a few cultural nods towards the worlds of Salinger and Updike, thus also serving as a clever metaphor for America at that time and all that ailed it.

Lee’s meticulously detailed direction perfectly captures the period, fashioning a tale that is both hauntingly poetic and darkly comedic and garnering top notch performances from a stellar ensemble with a script that allows both adults and children to bring something to the proceedings.

In terms of opening a window to a skewered suburbia – American Beauty is maybe the more lauded, but The Ice Storm probably did it better.

Highly recommended.