Director Ang Lee delivers a twisted, yet creative film that is incredibly artsy, but worth a viewing. It is “The Ice Storm.” Many twisted parents and kids of all sorts that make awful judgment and there are withdrawals by them. It stars Kevin Kline (as Ben Hood), Joan Allen (as Elena Hood), Tobey Maguire (as Paul Hood), Christina Ricci (as Wendy Hood), Sigourney Weaver (as Janey Carver), Jamey Sheridan (as Jim Carver), Elijah Wood (as Mikey Carver), and Adam Hann-Byrd (as Sandy Carver).

The plot: the year is 1973 in suburban Connecticut. There are two middle class families and that is the Hood family and the Carver family. Both families are fairly wealthy and luxurious. Both of the families are also extremely sneaky. The parents and their children participate in casual sex. Ben has a hidden relationship with Janey; Elena has a hidden relationship with Jim; and the teen Wendy has got a hidden relationship wit both Mikey and Sandy. The behavior of everyone does not only impair the judgment of everyone, but it spirals out everyone’s life to be out of control.

This film is an art-house film that is a must-see. I have watched and actually own a ton of art-house films that are spectacle, but “The Ice Storm” definitely takes the cake for being one of the most spectacular ones around. The chemistry between everyone in this drama is powerful and triumphant. You cannot help but wonder why it is titled “The Ice Storm.”

“The only big fight we’ve had in years is about whether to go back into couples therapy,” Ben says at some point in the film. Which may be one of the reasons for the obscene behavior. His wife Elena knows he is a liar and sees it as she says, “That sounds vaguely like an insult.”

The film moves forward. Both families still make harsh judgment. Then something tragic happens at a certain moment in the movie. Their judgment is like a routine, set to happen rarely between the parents, where it seems the children have tendencies to be a bit more horrid with the choices they make.

Lee is capable of enhancing the experience through the scenery with “The Ice Storm.” The color in the film is faded to have a hint of melancholy to the film. There is abundance of greenery in multiple exterior shots that makes viewers have the idea that the subject matter of “The Ice Storm” is not pleasant. Even though that may be the case, this is not a film to make people feel down. “It was 1973, and the climate was changing” (main tagline and noted on imdb.com).

Does the climate cause more issues? Is their any reconciliation? Or does the weather keep getting worse and does everything collide to sadness. Find out with “The Ice Storm”

Note: There is a Criterion Edition (For those of you who do not know what criterion is, it is an American video-distribution company that sells “important classic and contemporary films” to film aficionados”). Therefore if any of you are into art-house films or collect films, I would say give the Criterion edition of it a chance and go more beyond the film with its bonus features and interviews that are worth while to help us experience these art-house films as an art form. Thank you for reading.