Chalet Girl (2011) starring Felicity Jones, Ed Westwick, Tamsin Egerton, Bill Bailey, Bill Nighy, Brooke Shields, Sophia Bush directed by Phil Traill Movie Review

Chalet Girl (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Felicity Jones in Chalet Girl (2011)

Chalet-ella

Cute little fantasy fairytale which sounds like it should be a romantic comedy for older teens but the cutesiness makes it ideal for young teens... review over. To be honest there is very little which can be said about "Chalet Girl" as whilst it is pleasant enough, with a pleasant cast and a wonderful snowy backdrop, it is as routine as it comes. On one hand it is a bit of a Cinderella storyline where working class girl falls for a rich, handsome guy and that is coupled with a weak storyline of her confronting her demons and entering a snowboarding competition. All of which makes "Chalet Girl" highly predictable with a few stand out scenes but not entirely offensive either.

19 year old Kim Matthews (Felicity Jones - SoulBoy) was a champion skateboarder till her mother died in a car crash and she stopped competing, instead working in a fast food place and looking after her father. But when she is offered 4 months well paid work as a chalet girl in Austria it is too good an offer to ignore even if she has no idea what the job entails. And things don't start well when she arrives as resident chalet girl Georgie (Tamsin Egerton - St Trinian's 2) looks down her nose at Kim whilst she struggles with simple things like opening a bottle of champagne. To complicate matters she not only starts to have feelings for Jonny (Ed Westwick), the rich son of the chalet owner, but she finds she has to confront her demons when she decides to start snowboarding and enters a big competition.

Ed Westwick, Sophia Bush and Brooke Shields in Chalet Girl (2011)

So we have two things going on in "Chalet Girl" and the first of those is the predictable story of Kim having to confront her demons in order to be able to snowboard in the competition. The demon is she misses her mum and for some reason when ever she approaches a jump has a flashback to the night her mum dies and so bottles it. The second storyline is your Cinderella storyline as working class Kim falls for the wealthy Jonny who is expected to propose to the socially appropriate Chloe, nicely played by Sophia Bush. This second storyline is as obvious as the first and both play out in an entirely predictable manner with the expected hiccups along the way before a triumphant happy ever after ending. I suppose it is frustrating that something more original couldn't have been concocted but for young teens it works with its cutesy mix of fantasy and fairytale.

What this really means is that along the way we are meant to be entertained by the often sarcastic Kim as she deals with the snobbish Georgie and wins over Jonny and his rich parents, often making a fool of herself along the way. For the most it is again all very cutesy with simple comedy as Kim hitting herself in the nose when opening a champagne bottle followed by Jonny being kind to her. And again for a young teen audience it is cute fun, sort of Bridget-Jones very lite. But it is sort of confusing because I would have thought a movie about a 19 year old doing 4 months as a chalet girl should appeal to 19 year olds but to me the humour is targetting a much younger market.

Despite being predictable "Chalet Girl" is still entertaining thanks to Felicity Jones whose delivery of sarcasm makes the movie entertaining, well more entertaining than many of the forced jokes such as a dumb naked hot tub scene. But Jones is aided by some enjoyable supporting performances especially Bill Bailey as her father and Bill Nighy as Jonny's father. Unfortunately Ed Westwick as Jonny doesn't do it for me for the simple reason his face never moves, seemingly frozen along with his hair in a pose which I presume is meant to make young girls swoon. But it makes Jonny charisma-less and makes you wonder why Kim would fall for him in the first place.

What this all boils down to is that "Chalet Girl" looks like a movie for older teens but ends up a cutesy fairytale for younger teens. It works but it is unremarkable and the sort of movie which when shown on TV you question whether you really want to watch it again.


LATEST REVIEWS