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Name of Student:
Ice Castles.
Ice Castles is a movie where a young girl by the name Alexis has a dream of becoming
one of the greatest figure skaters during her time. She faces a lot of challenges in her quest to
becoming the greatest skater, including losing her eye-sight and even breaking up with her
boyfriend. In her suffering, after being blind, Alexis falls in love for the second time with her
boyfriend, Nick. Nick with the support of Alexis’ father, and her coach come together to make
her realize her dream.
Alexis Winston stays in Iowa with her father who is a widower. She participates in a
competition in Cedar Rapids where she is discovered by Aiden (Morgan Kelly), who is an
Olympic figure skating coach. After an invitation by Aiden, Alexis moved to Boston to pursue
Olympic figure skating dreams. Alexis’ skating skills improved tremendously while in Boston.
She participates in a regional figure skating competition and took position two and also won the
sectionals. She becomes very famous in the media. She then qualifies for the National
competitions, and even she feels she can compete very well in the Olympics (Ice Castles, 2010).
Nick who is Alexis’ boyfriend from Iowa is a bit jealous of her success in skating. He
then goes to the sectional event to reconcile with Alexis on their differences, but to make matters
worse, he finds Alexis Kissing her coach, Aiden (Jo Ann Schneider Farris). Alexis is now very
sad and very much confused because of what she did to Nick. She then decides to go out to skate
on a lake while a competition celebration party was taking place so that she could free up her
mind from her thoughts of betraying Nick. While skating she tries a complicated jump on the ice

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and falls, hitting her head badly. The injury on her head is so serious, that it causes her to become
blind. This brought an end to Alexis’ Skating career.
Alexis then returns to Iowa depressed and with a lot of disappointment. She then
reconciles with Nick, and Nick decides to devote himself to helping Alexis return to skating.
Nick has a lot of belief in Alexis and sooner than later, Alexis started enjoying ice skating again.
Surprisingly enough, Alexis is able to do things the way she used to do when she was not blind.
Nick now convinces Alexis to compete in the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships,
because he believes that by doing that, Alexis would be able to move ahead with her life. With
the help of Nick, her original coach who was based in Iowa, and her father, Alexis competes in
the Nationals and her performance was stunning.
One of the key issues which stand out in the movie is the father to daughter relationship.
Though Alexis’ father is a single parent, he shows a lot of care and love to his daughter. For
example, he stood by Alexis when she was trying to get back to training, after the accident which
caused her to loose her sight. Another issue is the love relationship between Nick and Alexis.
Their relationship was faced with some instances of disappointments and happiness. One of the
disappointing events is when Nick caught Alexis cheating on him, and that caused a great rift
between them. One of their happiest moments is when they reconciled and Nick decided to help
her get back on track with her career. From the movie, it is evident that Nick and Alexis came
out as strong couples in their relationship, which faced a lot of hiccups starting from Alexis’
coach who was seducing her to jealousy of her boyfriend who was not happy with the
achievements of his girlfriend. There is something for us to learn from Nick, which is, we should
always support our partners in a relationship on the career choices that they make, and go an
extra mile to even encourage them in times of difficulties so that they can perform to their best.

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Another key issue that stood out in the movie is the display of talent by Alexis who is a
very talented skater. She quickly got back on track in her career after the fatal accident which
caused her loss of eye-sight. Another issue that we can get from the film is the determination of
Alexis to resume her career even after losing her sight, thus determination has no barriers. Her
determination is also seen on the way she was keen to reconcile with Nick after he caught her
cheating on him.
The film does a good job in inspiring the audience who never had a chance of skating, to
give it a try. By watching the film, one can even benefit from Alexis Skating and grasp one or
two skill in skating. From the film, the audience can pick some very good moral lessons. For
example, one can learn that in a relationship, people have to forgive one another instead of
blaming one another. That was well illustrated by Alexis and Nick when they reconciled after
Nick found Alexis kissing her coach. Another moral lesson that we cal learn from the movie is
that of having a culture of belief in yourself and the people around you. This is well
demonstrated by Alexis, who after losing her eyesight, worked tirelessly with the support of
Nick, her father, and her coach, to get back to her career of skating.
This is a very moving film, it does not have too much of sex related scenes, apart from
some kissing and that makes it suitable for the young generation. The language used is of good
standard, apart from a few isolated cases, which is suitable for all generations. The film gives
aspiring parents some glimpse of hope, that even if they are widowed they can still raise their
children to become the best in the world. The film also encourages the youth who are in a
relationship and at times they feel like quitting the relationship, maybe because of some issues,
the way Alexis was faced with the issue of cheating on her boyfriend, that they should not quit
the relationship but instead fight for the survival of the relationship. In the movie there is a part

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where the coach of Alexis is taking advantage of her being his student and seducing her (Jen
Johans). That talks a lot about the society, and how evil it has become that people do not respect
other peoples relationships, like the coach never respected the relationship between Alexis and
Nick, and that is why he ended up kissing her.
In my opinion, I feel that the movie is really based on the issues which relate to diversity
in our society. Most of the people in the society feel left out in their career aspirations, simply
because he or she is physically disabled. Alexis is a very good example of a person who after
losing her eye-sight, goes ahead and fulfils her dream of being one of the greatest ice skaters.
I liked the movie because it is touching, clean, beautiful, and very much inspiring. I also
liked the theme song by Britt Nicole. I also liked Alexis’ skating. I also liked the movie in the
way the people around Alexis handled her during her most difficult moments, for example, the
former coach made sure that she got back to her career after she lost her sight. From the movie
also I get the moral lesson of forgiveness in a relationship. Without accepting ones mistake, there
cannot be forgiveness, so Alexis had to accept her mistake so that Nick could forgive her.
In conclusion, I would like to recommend this movie to the young generation, and the
people in the society who look down upon themselves, maybe because they have a physical
disability. Like Alexis, I would encourage the physically challenged in the society not to look at
their disability as an impediment to their career, but to focus on being the best in their career
aspirations.

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Works Cited
Jo Ann Schneider Farris. Review of the Remake of the Figure Skating Movie "Ice Castles".
Retrieved from
http://figureskating.about.com/od/figureskatingmovies/gr/icecastles2010.htm
ICE CASTLES (2010)
Dir. Donald Wrye.
Perf. Taylor Firth, Rob Mayes, Morgan Kelly.
DVD.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2010.
Jen Johans. (February, 2010). Film Intuition: Review Database. Retrieved from
http://reviews.filmintuition.com/2010/02/tv-on-dvd-ice-castles-2010.html