The Ice Storm

Details

Set against a Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, Ang Lee's The Ice Storm follows two neighbouring families living in the affluent Connecticut suburb of New Canaan. On the surface the Hoods and Carvers appear to have everything, but behind closed doors both families are quietly beginning to fall apart.

Ben Hood (Kevin Kline) is having an affair with his neighbour Janey Carver (Sigourney Weaver), while his increasingly disillusioned wife Elena (Joan Allen) is beginning to question both her marriage and the comfortable suburban existence they have built around themselves. Their children aren't exactly having an easier time of things. Wendy (Christina Ricci) is experimenting with sex and rebelling against her parents, while Paul (Tobey Maguire), home from boarding school for Thanksgiving, is preoccupied with winning the attention of the girl he has fallen for.

Meanwhile, Janey's sons Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd) are largely left to navigate their own way through a household in which the adults appear every bit as confused as their children.

As Thanksgiving approaches, the relationships between the two families become increasingly complicated. The adults seek escape from their unhappy marriages while their children embark on their own tentative explorations of relationships, sex and growing up.

Then, as the temperature drops and a severe ice storm moves across Connecticut, the various strands of their lives begin to converge. Against a landscape slowly being encased in ice, a weekend already filled with secrets and fractured relationships heads towards consequences that none of them could have anticipated.

Picture & Sound

Presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, The Ice Storm finally makes its UK Blu-ray debut courtesy of StudioCanal. The 1080p presentation is clean and detailed, whilst fine detail is generally good, particularly in faces, clothing and the wonderfully authentic 1970s interiors, while the icy exterior sequences benefit considerably from the additional resolution offered by Blu-ray.

One of the things I've always loved about The Ice Storm is its wonderfully subdued colour palette. This isn't the kind of film that requires a full makeover, nor would it particularly benefit from colours suddenly leaping from the screen. Instead, Frederick Elmes' cinematography is dominated by the many 70s muted browns, greys, blues and other restrained tones which perfectly complement the wintry Connecticut setting.

The natural grain structure is also present and correct and, despite my usual reservations about overly prominent grain, in this instance I wouldn't want it any other way. Rather than becoming an unwelcome distraction, it complements the deliberately understated photography and helps retain the film's distinctly 1970s appearance. Scrubbing it away in pursuit of an artificially pristine image would arguably remove some of the character from the presentation.

The early 1970s setting is also beautifully recreated. From the clothes and hairstyles to the various awful looking American cars, houses and their interiors, everything looks and feels convincingly of the period without going overboard. It's 1973, you know it's 1973, but thankfully nobody feels the need to constantly remind you that it's 1973.

Rather surprisingly, the soundtrack is presented in LPCM Stereo, which feels like something of a missed opportunity for a newly released Blu-ray. There's nothing particularly wrong with the track itself, with dialogue remaining clear and the various elements of the soundtrack reproduced cleanly, but it's difficult not to wonder what might have been achieved with a newly remastered 5.1 mix.

That's particularly true of Mychael Danna's wonderfully atmospheric score. It's deliberately restrained and never needs to overwhelm the film, but a sympathetic surround mix could have given it considerably more space while retaining the subtlety which makes it so effective in the first place.

The ice storm itself could have benefited even more. The wind, freezing rain, cracking branches and other ambient effects provide an obvious opportunity to surround the viewer and place them amongst the frozen Connecticut landscape. Instead, everything remains firmly across the front soundstage. It's perfectly serviceable, but for a film in which the weather becomes almost a character in its own right, it feels like an opportunity missed.

So while I don't necessarily find myself wishing the excellent picture had been given a 4K makeover, I do wish StudioCanal had been rather more ambitious with the sound. Retaining the original stereo track alongside a newly created 5.1 mix would have offered the best of both worlds.

Menu & Extras

It's perhaps here that StudioCanal's long-awaited Blu-ray release disappoints the most, especially when compared with the considerably more comprehensive Criterion release available in the US.

The main attraction is Inside The Ice Storm, a newly recorded interview with Christina Ricci. Running for around fourteen minutes, Ricci looks back at being cast as Wendy Hood, her experiences making the film and working with Ang Lee, as well as reflecting on the film nearly three decades after its original release.

It's an enjoyable retrospective and particularly interesting given Ricci's age when the film was made, although its relatively short running time means you're inevitably left wanting a little more.

Also included are a selection of archive Electronic Press Kit interviews with Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood. These date from around the film's original release and provide an interesting snapshot of how the actors viewed the production at the time, although their promotional origins mean they're understandably brief and considerably less revealing than the new Ricci interview.

And, unfortunately, that's your lot.

Considering the wealth of material that exists for The Ice Storm, it's difficult not to feel slightly short-changed. Criterion's US edition included an Ang Lee and James Schamus commentary, cast documentary, material examining the visual design of the film, deleted scenes and an interview with novelist Rick Moody amongst other features.

Obviously licensing existing material isn't always as straightforward as you'd hope, but for a film making its Blu-ray debut in the UK, something more substantial would have turned a welcome release into a much more definitive one. Still, the Christina Ricci interview is a worthwhile addition and it's certainly preferable to receiving a completely bare-bones disc.

Overall

It's taken a surprisingly long time for The Ice Storm to reach Blu-ray in the UK, but StudioCanal's release finally gives Ang Lee's superb drama the high-definition outing it deserves. Quite why we've had to wait until 2025 for a Blu-ray - rather than celebrating its arrival on 4K Ultra HD - is another question entirely.

Despite being released in 1997, The Ice Storm remains one of Lee's most accomplished films. There's no great villain here (well, apart from the weather) and, perhaps more importantly, very few characters who can claim the moral high ground. These are flawed people making bad decisions while desperately trying to convince themselves that everything is fine.

It's also an exceptionally well cast film. Kevin Kline manages to make Ben simultaneously selfish, pathetic and strangely sympathetic, while Joan Allen is excellent as Elena, a woman slowly realising how little satisfaction she gets from the life she's supposed to be grateful for. Sigourney Weaver is equally good as the detached Janey, delivering some of the film's sharpest lines with an almost complete lack of emotion. Indeed, after dealing with a murderous alien in deep space aboard the Nostromo, a key party in suburban Connecticut shouldn't present too much of a problem.

Yet it's arguably the younger cast who make the biggest impression. Christina Ricci is perfectly suited to Wendy's combination of cynicism and curiosity, while Tobey Maguire and Elijah Wood both give wonderfully understated performances. Given the films they would go on to star in, watching The Ice Storm today also makes the sheer amount of young talent on show here rather remarkable.

Frederick Elmes' cinematography deserves a special mention too. The increasingly cold appearance of the film beautifully complements the emotional distance between its characters, culminating in the frozen landscapes of the storm itself. Mychael Danna's wonderfully haunting score completes the atmosphere without ever overwhelming it. For me, it's the combination of the cinematography and score that takes The Ice Storm onto another level.

As for the Blu-ray itself, the picture provides a worthwhile improvement over the original UK DVD release and the soundtrack serves the film well, but the limited selection of extras prevents this from becoming the definitive release it could have been. That's particularly frustrating given the extensive supplementary material available elsewhere. StudioCanal's new Christina Ricci interview is welcome, but alongside a handful of vintage promotional interviews it feels rather thin for such an important film.

Nevertheless, the reason for buying the disc is ultimately The Ice Storm itself and, on that front, there's little cause for complaint. The Blu-ray gives the film the impressive high-definition presentation it deserves - it's just a pity StudioCanal didn't take the opportunity to give its wonderfully atmospheric soundtrack a similar upgrade.

So, a chilly film in more ways than one, but one that's well worth getting reacquainted with.

Special features

• Inside The Ice Storm: Interview with Christina Ricci
• EPK Interviews: Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood