Chalet Girl

A girl heads to the Alps to earn money to help out her father in the wake of her mother's death in Chalet Girl. Now that description may seem a little serious and downbeat, but Chalet Girl, a UK Film Council production, would easily fit in on US TV on the ABC Family channel.

The girl, Kim (Felicity Jones), is a former champion skateboarder, and after her mother died in a car crash her father has lost his will to do much of anything, and she's holding down a job at a burger joint to make ends meet until her dad can get work again. Kim lands a winter job for more money essentially catering for a family's ski chalet in the Alps. She starts as a fish out of water, but stumbles upon snowboarding and a natural talent for it. She sets her eyes on the end-of-season competition and a large cash prize as a way to finally set her family right again.

Of course, a movie like this wouldn't do without a romantic angle. Enter the family that owns the chalet and their son Jonny (Ed Westwick, Gossip Girl). Jonny is about to be engaged but is clearly smitten with Kim. If you like these sorts of movies, you can probably guess what happens.

The movie is fun and funny. It doesn't pretend to be serious cinema, it just does what it does well.

The DVD contains a whole bunch of the most boring interviews I've ever seen, consisting largely of the actors being asked how it was to work with the other actors. Spoiler: they all say everyone was great. The behind the scenes aren't much better, and neither are the viral videos and YouTube video. It also has full length commentary with director Phil Traill and star Felicity Jones which is moderately better. The movie itself is the best feature on this disc.