The talented Ang Lee has directed this film about uneasy family relationships in the restless, promiscuous culture of the 70s with crystalline precision. As the leaders of two archly funny but distrurbingly bleak surburban clans, Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver give refreshingly honest performances, but the film's ending sadly offers their characters no hint of redemption. The ice storm in this film, as a natural symbol of change and the wiping away of sins, is like Noah's flood without the rainbow.