In 1979 Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner became only the second American pair, and the first since 1950, to win a gold medal in the pairs event at the World Figure Skating Championships. (America had an even longer wait for their third gold in this event- forty-three years until last month, when Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier won a contest weakened by the withdrawal of the Chinese team and a ban on Russian participation following the invasion of the Ukraine). Babilonia and Gardner were favourites to win gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics, but were forced to withdraw when Gardner suffered an injury. This misfortune, however, only increased their popularity in the U. S., where they became known as "the heartbreak kids", and they turned professional soon after. This film's full title is "On Thin Ice: The Tai Babilonia Story", and as that title implies it concentrates on Babilonia; Gardner of course appears, but only as a supporting character.
This is a film of two halves. Part I tells, in a very truncated form, the story of Babilonia and Gardner's sporting career. One moment they are wide-eyed youngsters starting out on that career under the guidance of a strict-but-fair coach, John Nicks. The next moment they are being crowned world champions. The film omits the fact that they won five American Figure Skating Championships, competed at six World Championships, the first in 1974 when Babilonia was only 14, and came fifth in the 1976 Olympics. Part II tells how Babilonia suffered from various psychiatric problems, including eating disorders, alcoholism and depression; at one point she even attempted suicide. It also tells of how she eventually overcame these problems and put them behind her.
There is a convention that films about sport, regardless of whether they are based upon fact or wholly fictitious, should be based upon one of two plots, which can be titled "Triumph against the Odds" and "The Rise and Fall of a Champion" (together with its variant "The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of a Champion"). The "odds" in that first title can be either literal (stories about the underdog or rank outsider who defeats a more fancied opponent) or metaphorical (stories about someone who overcomes injury or some other personal disadvantage in order to achieve success). "Rise and fall" stories tell the story of a champion who achieves success but then loses it, generally because of some character flaw or personal demons. Plots like this may seem clichéd, but the convention is a necessary one because no film can recreate the drama and excitement of a live sporting event, so film-makers need to tell a human story, not just a sporting one. (This probably explains why the account of Babilonia and Gardner's career is so truncated). Sporting films which ignore the convention tend to be bland and uninteresting.
"On Thin Ice" is a case in point. Yes, it tries its hardest to be a "rise and fall" story, but it never manages to integrate the two halves of the story into a coherent whole. Babilonia's mental health problems did not come during her competitive career, but after she had turned professional. (In the eighties figure skating was essentially an amateur sport; unlike sports like golf or tennis, professional skaters did not take part in competitive tournaments but gave exhibitions in lucrative ice shows). Unlike Gardner, who retained his old enthusiasm, Babilonia seems to have fallen out of love with the sport which was once the most important thing in her life, and there is a suggestion that this may have happened because professional skating, although it made her rich, could never give her the same satisfaction as competitive sport. This suggestion, however, is never explored in any detail, and the character portrayed here comes across as just another bored and depressive little rich girl.
Skating is not an inherently uncinematic subject; anyone who thinks that it is should watch the excellent "I, Tonya" (about Tonya Harding) which, unusually, combines the "Victory against the Odds" and "Rise and Fall" storylines. Not all sporting champions, however gifted or widely admired they may be, qualify to have their lives made into a film, largely because most do not have lives as eventful and controversial as Harding's. (I doubt, for example, if anyone will ever make a film called "The Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier Story"; nobody ever made one about Peter and Karol Kennedy, the 1950 champions). There was, perhaps, just about enough material in Tai Babilonia's life for a biopic, but "On Thin Ice" is not a very interesting one. 4/10.
