Review of Chalet Girl (2011) by Jayne B — 10 Mar 2011

Admittedly, there is a good deal to get past to achieve maximum enjoyment: the deadening predictability of its soundtrack cues (Scouting for Girls, Eliza Doolittle, Ellie Bloody Goulding); a set-up (on ice!) that initially requires Jones to fall over and generally humiliate herself in the committee-approved Bridget Jones style, here linked - in clumsy psychological fashion - so that each fall reminds Kim of the car accident that did for her mother; a leading man who resembles Nick Kamen and the lead singers of various late 80s pop acts (Curiosity Killed the Cat, Johnny Hates Jazz) blended, all too smoothly, into one; the fact that the cinematic representation of wintersports - lots of green-screen, shots from the waist up, and doubles for the leads - doesn't seem to have come on all that much from "Better Off Dead.

.." 25 years ago; hell, even the fundamentally impassable lameness of the poster's "snow-mantic comedy" copywriting. Against all this, "Chalet Girl" provides a perfectly decent showcase for Jones, a valuable supporting player in everything up to (but not including) last week's "The Tempest"; if the role demands she play young - Kim's a chalet girl, and not yet a woman - her warmth and likability survive wholly intact.

.. It's as light and fluffy as snow itself - and quite possibly as temporary - but there are probably worse things for your teenage daughters to be watching.