Ice Castles (1978)

Directed by Donald Wrye. Starring Lynn-Holly Johnson, Robby Benson, Tom Skerritt, Colleen Dewhurst, David Huffman, Jennifer Warren, Sydney Blake. [PG]

Embarrassing story of love, family, and triumphing over adversity. Teenage figure skater trains to become a champion, loses her boyfriend, dates an adult, goes blind, shuts out the world, reconnects with boyfriend, decides to compete again. As silly as it is syrupy, this sack-o’-schmaltz is worth a few bad laughs, but director/co-writer Wrye tries to inject a chilly, textured melancholy into too many scenes, which just makes the story dull for long stretches—sentimentality rendered as sterility. Real-life skater Johnson is somehow more inept here than she would be a few years later as one of the worst Bond girls the franchise ever produced; Benson is even lousier as her hockey-loving paramour. The best thing to say is that some of the supporting performers retain their dignity (Skerritt, Dewhurst); the worst thing to say is that the insipid theme song, “Through the Eyes of Love”, isn’t close to being the worst thing in the movie. Did I mention blind figure skating champion? A direct-to-DVD remake was released more than thirty years later.

26/100