The Breaking Ice
Nour Films | Release Date: January 19, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistJeffrey ZhangMay 22, 2023
Its interweaving of powerful performances and spiritual complexity, eventually melded with local folklore, is nothing short of beautiful. Read full review
86
TheWrapSteve PondMay 23, 2023
Paints a rich picture of full lives using little more than pauses, glances and a frozen landscape that says volumes without speaking. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 22, 2023
This 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. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJan 26, 2024
It’s bracing to watch a movie whose very flow communicates how to experience it, which can also be said of Zhou’s captivating turn as a young woman committed to being elusive as a ward against what being still and reflective might bring up. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 22, 2023
Rich 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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMar 13, 2024
Ultimately, “The Breaking Ice” turns inward, to the characters’ emotional landscapes, similarly filled with craggy formations and lush periods of calm. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comNell MinowJan 19, 2024
Chen 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. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 17, 2024
Chen (“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. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineGregory NussenJan 16, 2024
The 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. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDevika GirishJan 18, 2024
The setting is rife with metaphoric potential, and it is here that Chen falters as a director. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 22, 2023
There 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. Read full review
50
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMay 22, 2023
The 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. Read full review
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