Today, it's another good one in the glacial form of Ice Sculpture Christmas (2015) from director David Mackay (Ten Inch Hero). This one stars the uncommonly vivacious Rachel Boston as Callie, an aspiring chef who finds romance with a high-powered business dude named David (David Alpay) while preparing for a Christmas ice sculpting contest. Yup, it’s a holiday romance set in the world of competitive ice-sculpting and it's a real eye-opener.
Plot-wise, it’s nothing new. However, the ice-sculpting stuff is seriously impressive, going into interesting detail about how this tricky art-form is done and marking this out as distinctive from the mooshy festive romance crowd. Miss Boston is also easily the most captivating, spellbinding lead I’ve come across in these films so far. As enthusiastic, focused Callie she radiates a plucky, spunky positivity that is irresistible. It would have been easy for a character this exuberant to be irritating, but Boston is magical.
The plot is naturally ridiculous, full of coincidences, with Callie meeting David and immediately remembering he is the same guy she met once as a child 18 years ago. She’s a talented sous chef starting at the bottom again as a dish-washer in a restaurant where the tyrannical head chef (Brenda Strong) just happens to be an ice-sculpting enthusiast herself. Fate throws these characters together in a gala sculpting competition where they all learn to be better people, find love and so on.
It's a hard movie to dislike, with a sweet message about how life will reward you as long as you're nice, work hard and apply yourself. Callie and David are sabotaged in their quest for the prize, but don’t let it get them down and it never occurs to them to cheat. It’s a great reminder that if we try our best to stay on the Nice List, great things can happen. It also features this awesome/awful chef put-down – “You think you’re special? Just remember…the specials change daily.”
This gets extra cool points for the ending where our lovers leave the grand finale without even waiting to see if they’ve won the contest. They’re already winners – they’ve found each other.
Goodness, I have definitely been watching too much of this stuff.
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