...And it would be nice to get an answer to any of these questions if, and no insult to those of you reading Filmcritic in Braille, the producers hadn't made the bold decision to hire a production staff that was also blind. Or at least, given that this has, quite literally, the worst lighting I've ever seen in a movie outside of a YouTube webcam video, one can assume the movie was lit by blind people. Maybe it's the director who made the choice to light most of the movie with lamps that were available in the rooms they were shooting in. Maybe they blew the budget on roses, teddy bears, and renting out ice skating rinks, and just couldn't afford to light scenes.
I even know from experience, and here's a little film lesson for you, that it's difficult to light an ice skating rink... You really need to close down the shot or you risk over-exposing your footage; but at the same time, you need to make sure your subjects are lit. Most of the time? The crack Ice Castles production team forgot to do that.
You'd hope, at least, that a movie about ice skating would have good skating, and this is the one saving grace of the movie. Despite Director Donald Wrye's best efforts to completely crop his stars out of the frame, and focus on the real star of the movie -- the ice (I mean, it's called Ice Castles. What are all these freakin' humans doing in here?) -- Taylor Firth, who stars as Lexi, and is a professional skater in real life, is actually quite good. The characters in the movie talk about how pure, honest, and fun Lexi's skating is, and for once, they're right on the money. When Firth hits the rink, it's magic to watch.
Too bad her acting isn't so great. The whole cast seems like their highest career goal would be to someday get an ABC Family movie (which, let's be honest, is also the entire life's ambition of Ice Castles), but they're not quite there yet. Maybe they should all get together and shoot a spec version of The Cutting Edge 4, to see if things really start to click. But guys: Ditch the blind lighting designer. Charity is nice, but he's slowing you down.
Which way to the locker room?
