A Menina do Chalé

This movie is about a young woman finding herself after a tragedy and yet at the same time it's a lighthearted rom com. The cast is comprised of some familiar faces, a few of whom are pretty big names. This movie is silly, easy to watch, and nothing extremely monumental, and yet it is comforting to watch. This should be the type of movie you watch once, maybe a second time if it's on tv or a friends suggests watching it, and yet somehow this movie has become one that I rediscover every couple of years and watch as engaged as the first time I've watched it. I can't explain it, so instead I guess I'll just enjoy it.

Chalet Girl – CATCH IT (B) Chalet girl is a story about a former skateboard champion who after a tragic death of her mother living a life in anonymity. To make more money she joins the elite posh servicing company which sends her off to Austria. The movie is really light and fun loving. There are no hardcore dramatic scenes, and in the backdrop of snowboarding we see a love story of a normal girl falling for rich guy. Felicity Jones did a fine job playing tomboy girl falling for British lad Ed Westwick. Ed Westwick, the infamous Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl was impressive, losing all that aggressive American tone. Tamsin Edgerton, Georgia King and German Lad Ken Duken have some really fun moments in the movie. Brooke Shields, Sophia Bush, Nicholas Braun and Bill Nighy are good in their respective parts. Overall, it's an enjoyable British movie for sports and romance fans.

It shames me to admit it but this film, despite being utterly predictable and terribly cliché is, heartwarming, funny and very feel good. I enjoyed it more than I'm proud of. I only watched the film because of Bill Nighy is in it who although only having a small part to play, plays it very well (obviously). The film is based around a snowboarding competition entered by Kim (Felicity Jones) having never snowboarded but previously being a skateboarding prodgy (you'll understand after you watch the film). Despite this being the theme of the film, the backstory romance becomes more of the film than the boarding.

The humour is very dry and very British, everything is a bit awkward but this is clearly intended and adds a touch of realness to the film despite how predictable everything is.

Basically if you're looking through the comments to find out if you should watch it; then if it's a Sunday afternoon or you have a few hours to kill then I say yes. You certainly won't regret it, it's easy to watch and fun. If you're looking for a film to work your brain however, this is definitely not it.

It's rare that when watching a chick flick, I find myself laughing out of genuine humour: but such was the case in Chalet Girl. Not only does it boast a pleasingly sarcastic dialogue and delightfully witty characters, but it offers just the right amount of romance and cheese to avoid 93 minutes of cringing. The story was very uplifting, albeit predictable, and the photography was worthy of a gasp or two. Set in the beautiful Austrian alps, this movie contained the perfect ingredients for a light and enjoyable flick: humour, romance, dramatic twist and happy ending. Perhaps it's not Oscar worthy, but it's certainly worth an hour and a half of your time.

Felicity Jones is such a great up and comer, she will certainly have a long career ahead of her, she's got an extremely likable screen presence. The story of Chalet Girl is sweet and innocent, but not too innocent, the character of Kim makes thus film not the annoying cheesy romance it so easily could have been.

If it was American it would not have been as enjoyable, even the one American character in the film (Brooke Shields), is the most annoying of all of them, even though she plays trophy wife to perfection she is still very mean and annoying.

Ed Westwick impressed me also, I thought he wouldn't be able to shake off the whole Chuck Bass characterization, but Henie convincing as the nice rich boy who falls for the working class Kim.

The alps where the movie is filmed are absolutely gorgeous, it's movies like this that make you want to go on holidays. The performances all round are wonderful but like I said earlier this movie belongs to Jones. She's just lovely.

I hope you enjoy it. Quite different to the usual romantic comedy but much better also. :)