SKATING TO NEW YORK

Canada, 2013, 93 minutes, Colour.

Connor Jessup, Wesley Morgan, Gage Munroe, Matthew Knight, Dylan Everett, Jason Geddrick, Michelle Nolden.

Directed by Charles Kinsky.

A small Canadian drama with overtones of coming-of-age stories.

The setting is a Canadian town across Lake Ontario from New York State. There is also an ice hockey setting, quite a lot of action sequences for fans. At the centre is one player, celebrated, a group of friends, difficulties between his mother and father.

The idea comes to skate across the lake to New York. Much of the film shows the episode, impulsiveness, the lack of preparation, the different personalities of the group, having to leap over a water gap in the ice, an encounter with a strange truckie, getting a sense of direction…

On arrival, there are complications for the central character finding his mother. There follows some attempts at reconciliation and understanding, parental support – and a final match.

1. Title and expectations? The Lake Ontario, winter, the ice, distance, the challenge?
2. The coming-of-age film, Canadian teenagers, the focus on boys, the friendships with the girls? Parents? School? Sport and competitiveness?
3. The background of ice hockey, popular in Canada, the teenagers, the teams, the play, the clashes and competitiveness, the coaches, parents, advice?
4. Casey, the focus, relationship with his father, demanding, advice? Relationship with his mother, supportive, concerned? Her leaving, his father at home? Later finding his mother with the medico from the hockey game? The challenge to her? Meeting up again with his father? Future?
5. The focus on Casey, age, experience, his friends? The range of friends, their ages, supportive, rebellious, the young boy? Their times together? The girls?
6. The idea of skating across Lake Ontario, preparations, lack of preparations, the caution of the young boy and is information, the derring-do of the others, Casey eventually coming? The distance, the compass? Food?
7. The exhilaration of the skating, in formation, the bonding, the gap with the water, the boy leaping over, the others hesitant, searching for an easier crossing, decision to cross, the formation together, the leap? Sense of direction, loss of sense of direction? The effect of the skating?
8. The trucker, stopping, the getting in, his mission, the touch of madness, the driving, going back across the border, the boys in the revolt, the dangers, the crash?
9. Eventually crossing, finding the bar and diner, the girl welcoming them in, the issue of drinking and age, the chat? Casey discovering his mother and the medico? The confrontation?
10. Calling his father, the discussions, the issues?
11. The boys, the dangers, the achievement, the exhilaration? The return home? The hockey matches, parental support?