It's one of those subtle family dramas that not everyone will dig, and I think in the midst of this culture of pop music and explosions got lost in the shuffle of other films that not a lot of people talk about anymore. It's the type of film that reminds me of 'The Dead Poets Society' or 'Freaks and Geeks' just awkward home life that someone has tasted at one point or another. The film is more than just a great cast (Kevin Kline, Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci, Sigourney Weaver just to name a select few, and a few others whose face and not name you'd recognize*) subtle deep score, brilliant cinematography, and a simple but detailed script. It has those pauses between the moments that breath like real life which only a handful of films I know do and modern films seem to forget the close-ups of leaves outside a window to create, dread, tension, and atmosphere before the moment.
It plays like a slice of life poem. It's reflective and intertwined of characters and small moments made only big because they're on a screen, in a movie that's damn near perfect.
I think in the future years Ang will be more remembered for this film as hopefully people discover it than "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" or even "Brokeback Mountain". (But I doubt the impact of 'Brokeback' could be diminished, I still find "The Ice Storm" a better and much more relatable film to me...and 'relatable' is a hard thing to do. Most people desire escapism in their movies in one way or another and "The Ice Storm" feels the opposite, like it's holding up a mirror to suburban life in America in the 1970's or whatever time you were young and just discovering what betrayal, sex, and tragedy were all about.)
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