Review of Yuri Khmelnitsky’s film “Ice 3”

Movie premiere

The romantic melodrama Ice 3, a continuation of the popular franchise about love and skating, has been released. Led by the same production team behind the first two films, the debut director seemed Yulia Shagelman, managed to produce quite high-quality cinema for the viewer who prefers to glide along the surface and not look into the depths.

The first “Ice,” which was also directed by debutant Oleg Trofim, was released on February 14, 2018. And unexpectedly it turned out, firstly, to be a musical (the information that in the most emotional or uplifting moments the characters in the film suddenly burst into song was not advertised in the promotional campaign, based on the consideration that the Russian public does not like musicals), and secondly, a box office record holder . The songs of Kino, Zemfira (recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent), the group 5’nizza and Bogdan Titomir, sung by the characters, not only did not scare away the audience, but also helped the film collect over 1.4 billion rubles, which is still true now, six years later. considered an excellent result.

The mix of sports drama and love story was followed two years later by a sequel. “Ice 2” was directed by Zhora Kryzhovnikov, already well known for the comedy “Bitter!” (2013) and the series “Call DiCaprio!” (2018). The second film was just as shamelessly melodramatic, but a little closer to everyday realities: it all began with the death in childbirth of the heroine Aglaya Tarasova, figure skater Nadya, and her inconsolable widower, hockey player Alexander Gorin (Alexander Petrov), was left alone with his little daughter in his arms. The focus was on their relationship, but also on guardianships and parental rights lawsuits. Again scored with familiar melodies, from “Beautiful Distance”, Alla Pugacheva and “Ivanushki International” to “Juno and Avos”. The box office success even increased compared to the first film: “Ice 2” collected 20 million rubles. more.

However, in the third film the creators return to the formula tested in the first. Nadya’s daughter, also Nadya Gorina (Anna Savranskaya, even similar in appearance to Aglaya Tarasova), has grown up. This process is shown at the beginning with the help of a montage for “Winged Swings” (further in the program: the group “Aria”, Dolphin and Yulia Savicheva). Now Nadya Jr. is eighteen, and love and high-achieving sports are back on the ice arena. Like her mother, she was once injured, but, like her mother, she was able to get back on her feet and – again like her mother – dreams of winning the Ice Cup, once invented by the authors in order to get away from associations with the Olympic Games, marred by doping scandals, and now reinforcing the impression that the film takes place in some kind of parallel reality, where, for example, in conventionally our days, a Russian hockey player can receive an offer to be drafted in the NHL.

Alexander Gorin continues to play for the Baikprommash team, but his age is taking its toll. Although the make-up artists didn’t dare add wrinkles or gray hair to Alexander Petrov, so that sometimes he looks almost the same age as his adult on-screen daughter, his hero is still too old for hockey, so he is transferred to coach. And his place on the ice, awaiting that same Canadian draft, is taken by the daring young Muscovite Sergei Orlov (Stepan Belozerov). The acquaintance of two hockey players begins with a fight, and then turns into something like a bad world, so that when Seryozha meets Nadya and the young people fall in love with each other, their relationship will have to be hidden from Papa Gorin for some time.

Tragedy, as in the second film, also found its place here. This time it falls to the lot of Irina Sergeevna Shatalina (Maria Aronova), who not only became Nadya’s favorite coach, but also practically replaced her mother. However, an oncological diagnosis will not prevent her from managing Nadya’s training sessions directly from her hospital bed, although Sergei will act as a direct trainer. Their activities are another idea taken directly from the first part, like the romance itself of a gentle but persistent excellent figure skater with an impulsive but devoted hockey hooligan. From there (and from hundreds of thousands of other melodramas and romantic comedies) all the reference points of this novel: mutual misunderstanding at the first meeting, recognition, quarrels and reconciliation. True, if at the end of the first film Nadya Sr. refused her sports career for the sake of a relationship with Gorin, then here it is Seryozha who, for the sake of her daughter, exchanges the beckoning Montreal for Irkutsk. And rightly so: who needs this NHL when the Baikal ice shines so beautifully under the sun, and love lives in the heart?