The sporting tape with elements of the musical “Ice” with Aglaia Tarasova, Alexander Petrov and Milos Bikovich was released on February 14, 2018 - just in time for Valentine's Day.
The picture was received warmly enough by critics and spectators and collected more than 1.5 billion rubles (thus, today Ice is one of the ten highest-grossing films of Russian production). The success inspired the producers to continue the tape, which was conceived as a holistic, finished work.
The production of the first part of the sports melodrama was led by Oleg Trofim, who had previously worked on music videos and commercials, but the producers proposed to shoot the sequel to Zhora Kryzhovnikov (“The Best Day”, “Gorky!”, “Call DiCaprio!”).
This was, if not a logical, then at least a logical decision: Kryzhovnikov established himself as a talented cinematographer, in addition, he has experience working with musical films (in this regard, the sequel continues the line of the first “Ice”).
The director noted that he looked at the original picture after he got acquainted with the continuation scenario, therefore he also perceived his future film as an independent one.
- Shot from the film "Ice 2"
- © kinopoisk.ru
Perhaps Kryzhovnikov’s attitude to work was very favorable from the point of view of production, however, for the audience, “Ice 2” will inevitably become a continuation of the original story.
So, for all the difficulties that the main characters Nadia and Sasha overcome together, a fabulous wedding follows: the groom, having escaped from the game, bursts into the registry office on skates. The walls of the hall soar to heaven, the first musical pause begins - “Hallelujah of Love” from the legendary rock opera “Juno and Avos”.
Such a scene would be much better for the finale than for the beginning of the story. Therefore, the creators of the tape decided to develop further action from an unexpected scenario - so impudent that fans of the first tape can regard it as sacrilege.
Most of the screen time is dedicated to the daughter of heroes, who was also named Nadia. The girl, confident that her dad is a taxi driver and her mother is a doctor (a reference to the Interns?), Dreams of becoming a skater. In this, the coach of Shatalin is taken to help her.
Sasha, on the other hand, is forced to solve more ordinary issues: as soon as he became a single father, he was paid attention to by the guardianship authorities in the person of the traditionally bad and good "police" (the latter is played by Anna Mikhalkova). At first, the hero who left the sport for the sake of his daughter must subsequently return to the profession in order to save his family.
Twice in the same river
The director at Ice has really changed, but the audience is unlikely to notice this: the tape retained all the pros and cons of the first part. Having put his hand to the script, Kryzhovnikov again tried to create a hybrid of themes and genres, which made the central idea of the film darken.
There is not much left of the melodrama in the tape, and you won’t call it a drama (which is rather good than bad). The sports line has been preserved, but is no longer decisive. The theme of the family prevails in the picture.
From the first film, elements of the musical migrated to the second - the same cover clips for not-so-relevant (but still favorite) domestic hits. Unfortunately, they still do not always fit organically into the narrative and fall out of the general style of the tape.
- Shot from the film "Ice 2"
- © kinopoisk.ru
“Ice 2” is a kind of potpourri of those: here there is a place for the confrontation between the person and the authorities in matters of child custody, and the difficult choice between career and family, and the conflict of ambition and humanity (this motive is revealed by the example of the heroine Maria Aronova).
In general, the tape has a very good message: the main thing in a person’s life is family relations with mutual support and readiness for any feats for the sake of a loved one. Nevertheless, in the process of viewing the meaning is lost due to the abundance of side ideas.
One gets the impression that the creators of the picture wanted to please any viewer - from lovers of crying over the melodrama to critics of the imperfections of the social structure (and at the same time balancing on the verge of karaoke). But as a result, the drama made the tale sad, and the songs leveled the tragedy.
The main advantages of the tape are acting and storytelling, provoking an emotional response. It’s a shame, perhaps, only for the scene where the authors, for no apparent reason, added popular traits to the image of Maria Aronova, which does not combine with either the role or the image of the actress as a whole.
But her musical solo with Alla Pugacheva’s song “Lake of Hope” turned out to be very successful. Nine-year-old Vitaliy Kornienko also looks good on the screen, on whose account there are dozens of roles. Alexander Petrov, as always, is organic in the role of a romantic hero with a difficult fate.
And the very blasphemous plot twist, we must pay tribute to the filmmakers, makes us empathize with the heroes throughout the film - until the very end credits. Whether such a move is justified, it will become clear after the first reviews of the audience.