Blu-Ray Review: Chalet Girl

Reviewer: Dexter Kong
Rated: 12a (UK)
Release Date: Oct 3rd, 2011(UK)
Director: Phil Traill
Cast: Felicity Jones, Ed Westwick, Bill Nighy, Brooke Shields, Bill Bailey

Chalet Girl stars Felicity Jones as Kim Matthews, a former champion skateboarder, who gives up her aspirations to her father after her mother dies. She works a dead end job at a fast food restaurant but gains an exclusive job in the Alps as a chalet girl; where she finds a new found love of snowboarding and a blossoming romance with Johnny (Ed ‘squinty eyes’ Westwick.)

Kim spends the duration of the film building up some form of acceptance for her character who is looked down upon in a peculiar imposed hierarchy understanding of the idea, that rich families who visit a chalet resort can only be served by equally as posh workers. This is the filmmakers way of raising the status of Chalet girl to something of a legendary job.

Kim does find solus in her lonely job by taking up snowboarding to the time and soon finds a natural knack for it, given somewhat to her introduction as a former skateboarding prodigy at the beginning of the film. But, her snowboarding ability is impeded by the trauma of pov flashbacks to her mother’s car accident, selectively on a certain snow ramp jump integral to the plot. Never mind careering down a hill at over 30mph. So it is truly rather odd that half way through there is a montage of Kim practicing jumps, multiple times, given the nature of her flashbacks I don’t think the montage warranted that happy music and laughing.

Chalet Girl is an incredibly formulaic story clearly aimed at the tween crowd of an out of water situation where the girl gets swept away by the handsome, richer man. Felicity Jones is THAT girl who you’re meant to relate to, the pretty but only noticed when make up is on kind of girl. Whilst Ed Westwick is THAT guy who is suarve that the ladies are meant to fall in love with. The former does have charm enough to be a fairly likable character, whilst the latter squints and swoons enough to fill that character description. There is some incredibly bad typecast acting coming from a select few (shop owner, snowboard guy) and a cameo placed in here, of the type that is immediately apparent the person is an actual sports personality (read bad acting.. self knowing delivery and gratuitous camera lingering as she walks away or does anything)

The soundtrack of the film does actually stand out with the likes of Temper Trap, The Wombats, Two Door Cinema Club… to name just a few. The plot outcome is painfully obvious and sometimes spelt out for you with rather condescending visual cues. i.e Damn she can’t make the competition unless someone is injured, cut to lingering shot of person walking faux back clutching pain. (who knows what could happen next); whilst the dialogue doesn’t really give anything adventurous to most of its characters, save Felicity Jones, everyone being essentially a standard model archetype for a teen romance film set in the alps.