Ice Castels 2010 Movie Review

 

The film starred an actress named Lynn-Holly Johnson and a guy named Robby Benson (yes, the same guy who went on to voice Beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast.") The film was especially interesting to me because Colleen Dewhirst had a role in the film, and I already knew and loved her as Marilla from "Anne of Green Gables."

This version was released just this year and stars little-known ice skater Taylor Firth as our main character, Alexis Winston, a girl who loves to skate on the pond near her home. Her mother was a skater and she mimics moves she saw her mother perform, but she's never entered any competitions. When the opportunity presents itself, her father and her aunt, also her coach, support her in competing, and she places very well. Skating coach Aiden is in the audience, and he invites her to come train with him.

But Alexis soon learns that the world of a figure skater isn't always pretty dresses and applause. The other girls at the training center are rude to her, and Aiden is harsh. Only her love of skating keeps her there, and a little at a time, she and Nick start drifting away from each other. Soon, she and Aiden start drifting toward each other.

Her new found star status unsettles her, and she just wants to get away for a while. Finding a frozen pond, similar to the place where she first found her roots, she goes out to skate, but the ice quality isn't very good and she gets injured, losing her sight.

The remainder of the movie consists of her learning that there is life without vision, and that she can still skate - a very interesting process as she learns to feel the ice rather than seeing it.