A Promise Kept: The Oksana Baiul Story

If you're a skating fan (which I'm not) then I suspect that you, too, would have been disappointed by how little actual skating was in this movie. If you're not, then you're going to be disappointed, period. Every cliche that the sugar mill has ever turned out is in this movie; for example, like the girl crossing herself in front of the out-of-focus picture of Lenin in the background. Whatever else is on the other channels at the time is certainly going to be better than this monumentally insipid "feel good" garbage.

This dramatised biography of Oksana Baiul provides wonderful skating. Anybody who has seen any of Soviet and post-Soviet reality will however be very disappointed by the pastel-coloured Disneyland SU where Oksana is supposed to have moved around, in freshly painted flats where some occasional folkloristic napkin or bedcover is exhibited probably in order to tone down the American-style surroundings. A particularly amusing detail is the outer door to the posh-looking block of flats with the shining door knob (no stolen bulbs here!). Not to speak of the extremely good taste and stylish clothes of all the very healthy-looking men and women of this fictional Ukraine. At least most of the names are more or less correctly pronounced. The subject would have been extremely interesting both from human and skating point of view.

I must confess that I think well of this movie simply because of its subject matter-my favorite figure skater ever. It's kinda hokey and idealized, and they didn't always get the facts straight about Oksana's life, but it's well-meaning and sympathetic. Any other movie of this quality, I'd probably give a lesser score to, but this one is kinda special because it's about Oksana. People who aren't her fans wouldn't like it, and those who have no clue who she is might find it decent but cloying. For Oksana fans, though, it's nothing short of required viewing.

Yes I would watch this one again and I think you will like it to. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 5/26/21.