The times, they are a-changin' in The Ice Storm, with the idealists of the early 1960s having moved out of the cities to raise children even more cynical than they were. A new Blu-ray release for this Cannes prizewinner from StudioCanal highlights its emotional potency almost thirty years on. Despite the forecast promised by its title, it revels in its unlikely warmth and hope.

The Ice Storm treads the same ground as the likes of The Graduate and American Beauty, capturing middle-class malaise at cultural turning points. Thanksgiving, 1973; the Hood family are coming together for the long weekend in their Connecticut home. Such occasions are recipes for trouble, and parents and children alike are being buffeted by the winds of change. While young Wendy (Christina Ricci) and older brother Paul (Tobey Maguire) experiment with drugs and the opposite sex as teenagers are wont to do, father Ben (Kevin Kline) and mother Elena (Joan Allen) are struggling to maintain their sophisticated fronts while hiding affairs and desires for new tastes. Adapting Rick Moody's novel, screenwriter James Schamus finds a point of convergence between the sexual frustrations of The Graduate and the despair of Redford's Ordinary People. For all the excitement being sought, the film's primary register is a profound sadness and alienation, as the titular inclement weather threatens to chill all their heat.

The Ice Storm was Ang Lee's second English language feature after Sense and Sensibility, and he retains the lightness of touch he brought to the world of Jane Austen. The film's 1970s setting is vital and potent, with top-notch production values, but Lee never lets the period affectations overtake the narrative. The increasing sexual freedoms of the time play a large part in the narrative, but Schamus and Lee emphasize that all the characters are exploring out of heartbreak and frustration, rather than curiosity. Ben's affair with neighbour Janey (Sigourney Weaver) is borne of convenience and boredom more than any sense of liberation, while Wendy's flirtations with Janey son's Mikey (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd) cannot overcome the awkwardness of their undeveloped emotions. The whole film pulses with honest awkwardness, as if every tryst or hint of desire will bring the whole house of cards down. As always, suburban politesse is just a front for deeper, darker desires.

The thematic throughlines of The Ice Storm are familiar, and the setting threatens to date the film, but Lee crafts a film that is truly transcendent, one that feels as fresh as the day it was made. It shares the same style as touchstones like The Graduate and The Swimmer, but Lee's eye explores these monuments to pastels and earth tones with a genuine curiosity his characters can't manifest. Frederick Elmes' camera observes the characters closely, keeping an eye open for the slightest betrayal of their true feelings. Meanwhile, the sound design and Mychael Danna's haunting score freeze them in their destructive patterns. A soundscape of frozen rain and haunting Native American flutes haunts the leafy suburbs, like a spectre of doom that is bound to come calling. The Ice Storm is a chilly-looking film, but its ongoing concern for the well-being of its denizens brings warmth.

It's not hard to want to watch these people make their mistakes when they're played by such a fine cast. The younger cast members show remarkable grit and maturity that would serve them well in their later careers, and Weaver is enjoying her vampish role, but Kline and Allen are the standouts. Both convey oceans of regret and anger while scarcely raising their voices. For all the liberation of that moment in time, with its swingers' parties and readily available weed, Ben and Elena's silences hold the most power.

The Ice Storm serves as a reminder of the cyclical nature of human experience. As represented by Richard Nixon forever speechifying on the Hoods' TV, people will always make wrong choices, whether in politics, lovers or morality. In Ang Lee's view, such flaws make us a riveting study, and The Ice Storm is never less than engrossing in its embrace of human complexity.

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