The Ice Storm

"It was 1973, and the climate was changing."

1997 1h 53m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

🍅

86%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.3

IMDB

★6.9TMDB · 771🍅86%Rotten Tomatoes●72Metacritic★7.3IMDB · 64,199

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hood family is skidding out of control. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century.

“It was 1973, and the climate was changing.”

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Cast

Kevin Kline
Ben Hood
Joan Allen
Elena Hood
Sigourney Weaver
Janey Carver
Jamey Sheridan
Jim Carver
Christina Ricci
Wendy Hood
Tobey Maguire
Paul Hood
Elijah Wood
Mikey Carver
Adam Hann-Byrd
Sandy Carver

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ang Lee
Writers: James Schamus
Languages: English
Countries: France, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 89% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ang Lee, shot by Frederick Elmes. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mychael Danna. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Tim Squyres shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Kevin Kline and Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "It was 1973, and the climate was changing.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ang Lee directs. Frederick Elmes behind the camera. Mychael Danna scores. Tim Squyres cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in France, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 89% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
229 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.
4Directed by Ang Lee, shot by Frederick Elmes. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Mychael Danna. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Tim Squyres shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Kevin Kline and Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "It was 1973, and the climate was changing.".
9IMDB entry: tt0119349 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 17 themes, including "infidelity", "husband wife relationship", "based on novel or book", "1970s".

The technical file

Cinematography: Frederick Elmes
Original score: Mychael Danna
Editing: Tim Squyres
Production design: Mark Friedberg
Costume design: Carol Oditz
Makeup / hair: James Sarzotti
VFX supervisor: Randall Balsmeyer
Sound: Reilly Steele
Stunt coordinator: Douglas Crosby
Runtime: 113 min · 1h 53m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $18,000,000
Box office: $16,000,000
Return: 89% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Ice Storm (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes: 86% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 72/100
IMDB rating: 7.3/10 · 64,199 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 1 BAFTA Award. 9 wins & 33 nominations total

Also by

Ang Lee

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-12-19
★ 7/10
With both Thanksgiving and an ice storm approaching their early 70s Connecticut town, the “Hood” and “Carver” families are congregating for their celebrations in which you sense you might actually be safer if you were the turkey. We first meet the former family where dad “Ben” (Kevin Kline) is pretty much only going through the motions in his marriage to “Elena” (Joan Chen). Their loved up teenage son “Paul” (Tobey Maguire) has arrived from college in New York, and then there is daughter “Wendy” (Christina Ricci). The latter lot appear just as messy as “Jim” (Jamey Sheridan) and “Janey” (Sigourney Weaver) have their two kids “Mikey” (Elijah Wood) and “Sandy” (Adam Hann-Byrd) and both are replete with all the usual familial dysfunction you’d expect from small town America (or anywhere else). What we learn fairly swiftly is that “Ben” is having a long-term affair with “Janey”; “Wendy” is engaged in something embryonic with “Mikey” - to the chagrin of “Sandy” and with tempers raising as exponentially as the temperatures outside are dropping, things begin to come to a long-awaited head. Though the scenarios are somewhat exaggerated here, this is one of the best character studies I’ve seen on screen as it deals with adult issues of ennui, betrayal and tragedy, but also of adolescence and growing up - and virtually all of that is done with as little sentiment as possible. There’s sex, lust, infatuation on display here - but is there actually any love? Or respect? Is age in any way an arbiter of maturity, or of being “grown up”? Kline, Chen and Weaver offer us quite a solid masterclass on just how to portray characters with virtually no self-awareness, nor sense of anything except themselves. Hypocrisy rules amidst a “do as I say not as I do” mentality that is best exemplified by “Ben” and his rapport with the sexually adventurous “Wendy” and by “Elena” as her patience finally begins to evaporate. Meantime, a solid series of efforts from the younger cast remind us all of the joys and pitfalls of puberty and the years immediately following our own sexual awakening. The whole thing is written with toxicity in mind, and with the external photography of this equally chilling environmental phenomena taking hold outside their centrally heated igloos, there develops a distinctly claustrophobic feel to the whole thing. Hopefully, most family life won’t be like this…!?

Production companies