L'étoile de la glace

Because I'm a sucker for all things ice skating, I ended up watching this.

The whole beginning part annoyed me, especially the part with Amy whining and running away from this really cute guy - older for her, but cute. Then she gave him attitude for trying to get her back into ice skating - what a cad!!! It was trite and cute, nothing new to see here.

Anyway, it's a nice little story for a Saturday morning.

The ice skating was OK, but why was Amy trying to impress the guy with a single? That doesn't make sense. And the couples scene on ice was so predictable.

The movie was an okay watch. The music was the most distracting part. A constant orchestra plays throughout for dramatic effect.

There were a few odd parts, but overall it was fine.

Of the three movies on the Hallmark Channel this Saturday evening of Memorial Day weekend, given its bland description in the TV listings, this is the one I expected to like the least. But despite it's being a formulaic sports film, it was so well-written, -cast, and -executed, that I found it more enjoyable than the movie that preceded it on the schedule, one with more well-known actors.

As the sport in this film is figure skating, one might imagine that in casting, they'd need either skaters who could act or actors who could skate, or both, including one who could handle a hockey stick. In one case, however, they partially double-cast the final competition's underdog by casting an ingénue who could skate well enough for most of the scenes, and hiring a more proficient skater for the more difficult jumps and turns. Whichever the case, all performances here are faultless.

If you like feel-good movies about sports competition, this is one I'd recommend if for no other reason than gets its point and emotion across in a shorter amount of time than most.