Written and directed by Nick Hagen and Hamid Torabpour, a talented female hockey player anxiously waits to see if she’ll be drafted and live her dream of playing professionally. Starring: Molly Peyton, Nikki Leigh, Sonia Satra, Charles Hubbell, Luc Robitaille, Bernie Nicholls, Jim Fox, Jamie Langenbrunner, Joe Nieuwendyk, Bruce McNall, Lou Nanne and Marty McSorley.
With the rise of women’s sports and the boom in interest in hockey, it’s a pretty great time to release a film like Before the Ice Melts which combines both. However, if you’re looking for something to capture the fierceness of women’s sports or the physicality and intensity of hockey, this isn’t really it. However, if you’re a fan of both those things, as well as old-school, cheesy Disney originals or Hallmark movies, then this is definitely the film for you.
There’s an intensely sentimental tone to Before the Ice Melts so you can tell where this one is going right from the start. It’s simple, easy viewing that’s dipping its toes into hardship but never really diving in. It’s a classic tome of believing in yourself and doing your best and being able to figure it out if everything doesn’t go your way. It’s straightforward, both in story and in style, so it will likely better serve a younger audience.
Molly Peyton is a great lead as Nora, she’s relatable, kind, determined, and generous, she’s very easy to watch. There’s a solid cast behind her, no-one feels wooden or out of place, something that’s quite common for this type of film so that’s a nice change of pace. They bring a genuine touch, which is not easy with that heavy sentimentality, so it definitely helps the flow of the film, as does its nicely tight runtime of seventy-four minutes.
Before the Ice Melts is exactly what you think it’s going to be, it’s made for an audience that loves Hallmark movies and easy viewing, with easy stories, and that’s what you get here. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it serves a purpose. It would have been nice to see more hockey involved, although that feels like a potential budget problem, or at least more training montages to show Nora’s skills to better invest in her journey, but it’s nice, there’s some great hockey legend cameos, and it does what it set out to do.
