There are SPOILERS in this review. I found out why I liked this film so much when it first came out twenty-plus years ago: it was a good movie. Most reviewers followed the movie's publicity hype and assessed the movie on a linear structure: the story of a girl who with the help of her lover surmounts overwhelming obstacles to achieve a dream. And I can see how they might on such a basis view it as a failure. But then the linear structure was not the goal of the story in the first place. If you really look at what's happening in the movie, you'd also have to redefine "dream" before it makes any sense in the story that's actually told. In the end, the "A story with dream" may have little to do with ice skating.
(MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD) Grooming Lexie (Lynn-Holly Johnson) for the next Olympics is a major challenge for Deborah (Jennifer Warren), the world class figure skating trainer. Most girls start their trek by the time they're seven, devoting another decade to shaping their art and learning their figures and the skills of competing before they're considered ready for the big time. At sixteen Lexie is considered by many to be already over the hill. Through Deborah's demanding tutorship, television personality Brian's (David Huffman) television hype, and Lexie's determination and natural talent, amazing progress is made; sponsors are even lining up to back her run for the gold. What no one considers, least of all Deborah and Brian, is that skill isn't the only thing skaters become enured to by starting their training early in life. There's the give and take in the community of skaters, the learned knowledge of the ways of judging, the back-biting, the dog-eat-dog mentality that girls around the business since early childhood take for granted, but that for Lexie is a whole new world of naivete. In order to compensate for those years of rugged experience, a girl in Lexie's position will need to have strong props. Lexie's props? She's never been out of Waverly, her Iowa home town. Her mother is dead. Her father looks on Lexie as a surrogate for his dead wife, and refuses even to come to the bus depot to wish her well on her journey. Her beloved Nick leaves her at every important turning point in her life. Beulah (Colleeen Dewhurst), Lexie's home town mentor, is the only one who has ever treated Lexie with respect, but even she has an agenda. She wants desperately for Lexie, through her skating, to get away from the trap of small town America - which she herself was never able to do. So time after time we see a basically fragile Lexie totally confused by what she experiences in her new life. At a major Christmas television special in New York where all the world-recognized girl skaters will be putting on an exhibition, all the girls are stunned by the public emotional collapse on the ice of the French champion, but quickly get on to the next stage of the show; however, Lexie stands open-mouthed and frozen by what she has seen on the TV monitor. At the required cocktail receptions, Lexie doesn't understand why all the sponsors want to touch her and crowd her. It is not a hidden intention of the director and author that we should know that LEXIE HAS NO PROPS. After the exhibition, when Nick is cold to her on the telephone, Brian takes advantage of the obviously vulnerable girl - but he is incapable of support; what he calls love, yes; but support? no. So when she reaches the height of her quest, the gold medal at the sectionals, and sees Nick coming towards her, she is for the moment in seventh heaven, but when he sees Brian hugging her, the guy who always walks away from a struggle turns his back on her - a door slam that Lexie is no longer able to cope with. (SPOILERS)Depressed and alone, she leaves the victory reception, goes to the hotel ice rink, and does the only thing she has confidence in for herself, she skates - and falls - and hurts her head - and is permanently blinded. Now she has nothing. She returns to the farm and vegetates. Even her father has reached the end of his self-centeredness, and confesses to Beulah that he doesn't know what to do, that Lexie will die if not checked on her nothing course. Most viewers of this movie think that the climax is the big moment, when, totally blind, she skates the best performance of her life. I don't think so. I found the actual turning point - the climax, if you will - comes when after Marcus' plea, Beulah looks for Lexie and finds that she has crawled to the attic, and in the dark there she is putting on her mother's clothes (shallow movie?). The ensuing sometimes violent confrontation is as down and rough dramatic as you'd want. (MORE SPOILERS) But Lexie decides to put on the skates again. This time Nick, who has also learned a lesson, is a true helpmate - not doing things for her, but encouraging her to do what she can do ... and not walking out on her. After a long arduous re-learning period, Lexie goes again to the sectionals - this time with all her props in place: Beulah, Nick, and her father. The scene of the happy foursome in the car going to the sectionals could easily have been the last scene for its resolution of the story.
(MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD) Grooming Lexie (Lynn-Holly Johnson) for the next Olympics is a major challenge for Deborah (Jennifer Warren), the world class figure skating trainer. Most girls start their trek by the time they're seven, devoting another decade to shaping their art and learning their figures and the skills of competing before they're considered ready for the big time. At sixteen Lexie is considered by many to be already over the hill. Through Deborah's demanding tutorship, television personality Brian's (David Huffman) television hype, and Lexie's determination and natural talent, amazing progress is made; sponsors are even lining up to back her run for the gold. What no one considers, least of all Deborah and Brian, is that skill isn't the only thing skaters become enured to by starting their training early in life. There's the give and take in the community of skaters, the learned knowledge of the ways of judging, the back-biting, the dog-eat-dog mentality that girls around the business since early childhood take for granted, but that for Lexie is a whole new world of naivete. In order to compensate for those years of rugged experience, a girl in Lexie's position will need to have strong props. Lexie's props? She's never been out of Waverly, her Iowa home town. Her mother is dead. Her father looks on Lexie as a surrogate for his dead wife, and refuses even to come to the bus depot to wish her well on her journey. Her beloved Nick leaves her at every important turning point in her life. Beulah (Colleeen Dewhurst), Lexie's home town mentor, is the only one who has ever treated Lexie with respect, but even she has an agenda. She wants desperately for Lexie, through her skating, to get away from the trap of small town America - which she herself was never able to do. So time after time we see a basically fragile Lexie totally confused by what she experiences in her new life. At a major Christmas television special in New York where all the world-recognized girl skaters will be putting on an exhibition, all the girls are stunned by the public emotional collapse on the ice of the French champion, but quickly get on to the next stage of the show; however, Lexie stands open-mouthed and frozen by what she has seen on the TV monitor. At the required cocktail receptions, Lexie doesn't understand why all the sponsors want to touch her and crowd her. It is not a hidden intention of the director and author that we should know that LEXIE HAS NO PROPS. After the exhibition, when Nick is cold to her on the telephone, Brian takes advantage of the obviously vulnerable girl - but he is incapable of support; what he calls love, yes; but support? no. So when she reaches the height of her quest, the gold medal at the sectionals, and sees Nick coming towards her, she is for the moment in seventh heaven, but when he sees Brian hugging her, the guy who always walks away from a struggle turns his back on her - a door slam that Lexie is no longer able to cope with. (SPOILERS)Depressed and alone, she leaves the victory reception, goes to the hotel ice rink, and does the only thing she has confidence in for herself, she skates - and falls - and hurts her head - and is permanently blinded. Now she has nothing. She returns to the farm and vegetates. Even her father has reached the end of his self-centeredness, and confesses to Beulah that he doesn't know what to do, that Lexie will die if not checked on her nothing course. Most viewers of this movie think that the climax is the big moment, when, totally blind, she skates the best performance of her life. I don't think so. I found the actual turning point - the climax, if you will - comes when after Marcus' plea, Beulah looks for Lexie and finds that she has crawled to the attic, and in the dark there she is putting on her mother's clothes (shallow movie?). The ensuing sometimes violent confrontation is as down and rough dramatic as you'd want. (MORE SPOILERS) But Lexie decides to put on the skates again. This time Nick, who has also learned a lesson, is a true helpmate - not doing things for her, but encouraging her to do what she can do ... and not walking out on her. After a long arduous re-learning period, Lexie goes again to the sectionals - this time with all her props in place: Beulah, Nick, and her father. The scene of the happy foursome in the car going to the sectionals could easily have been the last scene for its resolution of the story.