ICE CASTLES

REVIEWED BY ERIN DAMAN

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: sexual content, foul language

Rated:

Ice Castles is a movie about dreams... how they can come true, how they can be broken, and how they can shape your life.  Lexie Winston (Lynn-Holly Johnson) is a young girl of 16 with an incredible gift for ice skating. Training in a small ice rink run by her mentor and “coach," Beulah, Lexie dreams of competing on a large scale one day.  But Lexie’s father Marcus doesn’t want her to compete.  With the help of Beulah and Lexie’s boyfriend Nick (Robby Benson) they manage to talk Marcus into letting her skate at a small competition. 

Her skating routine steals the show and enchants the audience, including Deborah Machland, a professional ice skating coach who is looking for a protégé to train for the Olympics.  She believes Lexie is just the girl she is looking for.  Of course Marcus is against it but reluctantly lets Lexie go when he sees how much she wants it. So, she goes away and begins her training under Ms. Machland. Under her guidance, Lexie begins to improve her skating and shines at one competition after another, gaining popularity with her victories. Soon she is on her way to becoming part of the Olympic Team. As Lexie becomes better and better and more and more popular, Deborah arranges a special publicity campaign that will make Lexie a household name by the time the Olympics roll around. Lexie agrees to do a television special about herself and soon is on her way to fame. But her publicity manager, Brian Dockett, begins to fall in love with Lexie, and when Nick finds out about it, he shuns her. Distraught, she continues her training, and just as her future is looking most promising, disaster strikes. Will the support offered by her family and friends heal her... or destroy her? 

The best part about Ice Castles is the ending, for two reasons: the story ends beautifully... and the movie finally ends. The film seemed to drag on and on and I was continually asking myself how much was left. Overall I found it to be a slow, generally depressing movie that isn’t much to look at.  The lighting and camera angles were displeasing and the characters annoying.  Not to mention the films glaring flaw. Language is main problem, and a problem it is. I’m shocked that the swearing didn’t earn Ice Castles a PG-13! With 38 mild profanities, 26 misuses of our Lord’s name (coupled with profanity more often that not), 6 each of strong and other swear words, and a few uses of such words as “crap” and “pissed,” it seems like bad language is used every other word. Drinking and smoking is present, as well as some kissing and a little mild innuendo.  A reference is made to homosexuality and there is a really long, stupid scene in which Nick is standing around in his underwear talking on the phone.

The two redeeming features of Ice Castles are the satisfactory ending and the lovely soundtrack. Other than that it is pretty much a waste of time, what with the poor acting and lack of real emotion in the characters. The language makes it unsuitable for anyone. If you want a story of overcoming difficulty and romance that’s actually entertaining, try Return to Me. Ice Castles just doesn’t cut it.