71
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Its interweaving of powerful performances and spiritual complexity, eventually melded with local folklore, is nothing short of beautiful.
- 86TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondPaints a rich picture of full lives using little more than pauses, glances and a frozen landscape that says volumes without speaking.
- 83IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichThis raw and lingeringly sensitive film resonates more strongly when it’s lost in the ice maze than when it’s tracing its steps back to the entrance. The Breaking Ice sticks with you because it doesn’t lead its characters out of the maze, it just melts down the walls between them.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyRich in feeling yet never emotionally emphatic, The Breaking Ice has an uncluttered narrative simplicity that’s mirrored in the shooting style and nicely offset by the nuanced complexity of the relationships. The closing notes of hope and renewal are lovely.
- 75Slant MagazineGreg NussenSlant MagazineGreg NussenThe Breaking Ice is fixated on intense in-between states that work to separate people from each other and from themselves, as if to say self-acceptance and love aren’t destinations so much as journeys, at once formidable and worthwhile.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreChen (“Wet Season” was his previous film) has made a movie of familiar themes and recognizable antecedents. But he offsets that by dropping us into an alien world so disorienting that little here neatly fits into a narrative box.
- 75RogerEbert.comNell MinowRogerEbert.comNell MinowChen is influenced by the French New Wave, and there are echoes of "Bande à part" and “Jules and Jim.” But do not let the meandering series of scenes, underscoring the characters’ aimlessness, allow you to overlook Chen's precision in even the smallest detail.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThere are some great scenes, strong images, nice setpieces and Chen triangulates the sexual tension interestingly. The Breaking Ice is not as absorbing or fully realised as his award winning debut Ilo Ilo, but his film-making has an arresting fluency and openness.
- 60The New York TimesDevika GirishThe New York TimesDevika GirishThe setting is rife with metaphoric potential, and it is here that Chen falters as a director.
- 50Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganThe actors are reasonably charismatic and the film grows increasingly lovely to look at, while failing to really make a case for itself beyond the superficial pleasures.