| Ice Skater pairs the simplicity of the beauty of the arctic with the harsh realities of surviving in the arctic. There is only one actor on screen, and there is only one plotline: survive. I am slightly over-simplifying it, but to make it clear, the entire movie is one person, Emily (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) vs nature. Emily is stranded alone an ice floe which broke off of a glacier and is now slowly drifting south. | | 2026
Directed by: Taavi Vartia
Screenplay by: Taavi Vartia
Starring: Thea Sofie Loch Næss
|
The natural first question is how did she get there? The film does give an intro by radio news which mostly answers the question. Emily is a figure skater and her and her team were doing a photoshoot on a glacier, which also included an overnight survival trip. This explains why she’s on an ice floe, and it also explains why her backpack happens to contain a lot of useful survival gear. The rest of the explanation, how she ended up alone, comes much later in the film and still only makes partial sense.
Survival films work better when they’re real and based on a true story. Fictional survival stories have a harder time with the suspension of disbelief. Fictional films need something more to connect to the character, or the surroundings. In Ice Skater, that something more is the cinematography of the Arctic Ocean. Filmed on location in Finland and Iceland, the photography is breathtaking. Even as she’s slowly dying in the middle of the ocean, Emily remarks that it’s the most beautiful place in the world.
The first half of the movie works a lot better than the rest of it. Early on it’s about taking in the vastness of the sea, and crisp white of the ice, and the expansive blue sky, and surviving. Emily has a few tricks at her disposal, like starting a fire with a magnifying glass, turning snow into drinkable water, and sewing a hole in her tent (remember, this was an overnight survival camping trip so she would have a tent in her backpack).
Emily is also grieving a dead sister, which has two purposes – to help explain why she was at the edge of the glacier in the first place (to scatter the ashes), and to provide an emotional weight to a conversation that Emily eventually has. Emily’s cell phone is mostly, but not completely broken, she can’t make any calls, but a telemarketer was able to call her. This is necessary for the movie because you absolutely have to break up Emily’s monotony, and to give her hope for survival. However, Harry, the air conditioner salesman who calls her, is insufferable. An infuriating character who makes the film more frustrating than watchable.
Fictional survival tales also often suffer from one common problem: taking things too extreme. For the first few days stuck on an ice floe, it was believable. Things eventually start getting more desperate, her ice floe is melting, her little bit of food has run out, her lips are turning blue, and she’s starting to lose consciousness, and the film keeps going and keeps making things worse. And suspension of disbelief keeps sinking.
|
