19 year-old Kim Matthews was a British skateboarding prodigy with a bright future ahead of her. Suddenly her mother dies in a car accident and her skateboarding dreams comes to an end. Fast-forward two years and she is working in ‘Chicken Cottage’ and struggling to help her depressed dad (comedian Bill Bailey) pay the bills.
By the type of luck only found in films, she manages to get a job as a chalet girl, cooking and cleaning in a private, super-expensive ski resort for a rich family who only come in the ski season.
At first, it is a nightmare with her co-worker, the glamorous Georgie (played by St Trinian’s Tamsin Egerton), making it very clear that she does not belong in this world. Kim can’t even ski so the main plus of the job is wasted on her. But she soon gets a snowboard, a teacher and finds a love for snowboarding.
But what most people in the audience really care about is the person playing her love interest, Jonny (Ed Westwick) also known as Chuck from Gossip Girl.
Westwick plays the rich son of the family who own the chalet and he proves that he can be another character other than Chuck and still makes girls swoon – especially with his natural British accent.
Unfortunately Westwick and Jones don’t fully connect as a couple but they have just enough chemistry to make the film work.
The family that own the chalet provide quite a few laughs with Bill Nighey injecting some comedic lines. Brook Sheilds is the perfect rags to riches mum who desperately wants her son to marry a society girl, Sophia Bush aka Brooke Davies from One Tree Hill.
The best part of the film has to be the snowboarding and all the shots of the mountains. A lovely scene with the yeti does a great job in making you wish you could go on a ski holiday and live that sort of lifestyle.
All in all, a nice feel good British film that doesn’t quite do enough to make you connect to the story. But it has shown that there is a lot of upcoming British talent that we need to keep our eye on. I recommend this to anyone who liked Whip It or Blue Crush.
***
Published: www.wirebournemouth.com
No comments:
Post a Comment