The Ice Storm

Directed by Ang Lee, The Ice Storm follows several circa 1970s protagonists, including Kevin Kline’s Ben, Sigourney Weaver’s Janey, and Tobey Maguire’s Paul, as they experience eventful happenings in the buildup to the title event. Filmmaker Lee, armed with James Schamus’ script, delivers a slow-moving yet mostly compelling drama that benefits from its stellar roster of players, with the actors’ uniformly superb efforts going a long way towards cultivating and sustaining a perpetually watchable atmosphere. (It doesn’t hurt, certainly, that Lee has elicited career-best work from folks like Kline, Weaver, and Maguire, as well as from an eclectic supporting cast that includes Joan Allen, Christina Ricci, and Elijah Wood.) And while the deliberateness with which the narrative unfolds does tend to prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly embracing the characters and their respective exploits, The Ice Storm, suffused with Frederick Elmes’ solid visuals and a series of eye-catching sets and locations, builds towards an unexpectedly powerful final stretch that ensures it concludes on a seriously positive note – with the end result a solid adaptation that’s probably most effective as a showcase for its thoroughly spellbinding performances.

*** out of ****