Author: Jaye Mathisen


Summary: An ex-hockey player, and a screwed-up figure skater team up to go for the Olympic gold medal in pairs figure skating.

A brief sidenote: [I seem to be finding quite a few movies recently that while not epics of modern filmmaking, seem to be quite enjoyable. I call them my "pick-me-up" movies, and when I'm looking for a movie that's not too heavy, but fun, I turn to some of these. So I thought I'd toss a few reviews out, in case you haven't caught these. None of 'em are box-office smashes, but I find them enjoyable.]

D. B. Sweeney plays ex-hockey amateur star Doug Dorsey, who gets his eye injured in the 1988 winter Olympics, and can no longer play competitive hockey. Moira Kelly is Kate Mosely, an Olympic medalist wanna-be, but who's earned a nasty reputation as the Ice Bitch, for her lousy attitude.

As to plot, there's not much there. Kate can't find a male partner to skate with, and so her coach in a last ditch effort, contacts Doug, to see if he'd be willing to make the attempt. He is, they do, there's conflict, resolution, and an ending with everybody happy and Doug and Kate in love.

The film is intended to be a love story, built around skating, probably to tie in to the Olympic skating craze. It's not a great love story, it's a good love story. Moira Kelly has the bitch part down pat, her facial expressions of disgust towards D. B. and some of his antics are priceless.

Rating: 3 stars out of 4. There is some nice camera work in taping some of the skating, especially all the fancy footwork, but nothing amazing. It looks like Kelly and Sweeney did a fair amount of skating, although certainly not all the stunt skating.

Enjoyability rating: 4 stars out of 4. This is one of the movies that kind of gives me for whatever reason, a warm fuzzy. My wife looked at me kind of cockeyed when I mentioned it, but she enjoyed the show too. If you're expecting epic greatness, stay away from it. If you want something light, with a moderate dose of romance, and a sappy ending, then this will fill the bill.