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Olympic Dreams Review: An Olympics Gimmick Can't Save This Bland Rom-Com
From filmmaker Jeremy Teicher (Tracktown) comes a new romantic comedy, Olympic Dreams, filmed in the Olympic Athlete Village during the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Teicher employs guerilla filmmaking to tell his story about a cross-country skier who forms a romantic connection with a volunteer dentist after her competition is over early on in the games. Teicher's long-time partner Alexi Pappas, herself an Olympic athlete and long distance runner, stars in Olympic Dreams, in addition to serving as co-writer and producer alongside Teicher and co-star Nick Kroll. Olympic Dreams' backstage look at the 2018 Olympics is much more compelling than the movie's bland and contrived romantic comedy storyline.
Olympic Dreams is standard rom-com fare, in that the characters meet, they stumble a bit in their relationship, but eventually find some kind of hope and happiness - there's even a dash through the airport style ending, but here it's the Olympic village's bus depot. In the film, cross-country skier Penelope (Pappas) is focused entirely on her event, but once it's over, she flounders to figure out what's next, and spends her time in the Olympic village wandering around and trying to connect with other athletes. Eventually, she meets volunteer dentist Ezra (Kroll), who's similarly stuck wondering what will come next for him after the games since he broke off an engagement just before heading to PyeongChang. The pair form an awkwardly sweet connection, but it remains to be seen if they'll be able to get over their respective fears in order to explore what's between them.
The story of Olympic Dreams is rather overly simple, whether by necessity of filming at the Olympics or by choice (or a combination of both), and there doesn't seem to have been much of a script, as many of the lines come off as ad libbed by Pappas and Kroll. Sometimes this works to the movie's benefit, giving it a natural, unassuming charm rooted in its realism. However, more often than not, it leads to an awkwardness that's more plainly uncomfortable than compelling. This naturalism is also occasionally thrown out the window by Teicher for an overly contrived story beat, like Penelope hitting on Gus Kenworthy (playing himself) and him having to tell her he's gay - and this manages to be even more uncomfortable than the movie's normal awkwardness. There are other curious directing choices by Teicher that take away from the realistic feel Olympic Dreams seems to be going for, which inevitably give the movie more of an uneven and haphazard feel.
For their parts, Pappas and Kroll do what they can with what they're working with, but unfortunately, the duo don't have much romantic chemistry; as such, when Penelope and Ezra do share the requisite rom-com kiss, it feels more obligatory than romantic. Individually, Pappas brings a charm to Penelope's awkwardness, while Kroll shrinks under Ezra's more serious nature, and they're more enjoyable to watch when they're interacting with others than together. Kroll shines brightest when he's goofing off with Olympic athletes in Ezra's dentist's chair, and Pappas comes alive most when working with Kenworthy. For his part, Kenworthy is the most comfortable in front of the camera, at least in this context; he has an easy charm that makes his portions of the film more compelling than perhaps anything else in Olympic Dreams.
Ultimately, what's most interesting about Olympic Dreams isn't the story of Penelope and Ezra, or even Pappas and Kroll's performances, but the backstage look at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the Olympic Athlete Village. Every other year, the world becomes fascinated by the Olympics, whether it's the Summer or Winter games, and thanks to Pappas' access by being an athlete, Teicher is able to take viewers behind the scenes and showcase the event from an athlete's perspective. The idea that an athlete on such a public stage and surrounded by so many others who are, superficially at least, like them can feel isolated is fascinating. That is perhaps why the moments when Pappas' Penelope interacts with other athletes trying to find some sort of human connection amid the pageantry and high stakes competition wind up being much more compelling than her scenes with Kroll's Ezra. It seems like there was a more compelling movie in here somewhere, but it gets lost in the banal rom-com plot.
As such, Olympic Dreams may be worth watching for those fascinated by the Olympics and craving a peek behind the scenes of what athletes' lives are like while living in the Olympic village - but through a fictional lens. To be sure, Olympic Dreams isn't a documentary, even if it occasionally feels that way, and that may be a tough hurdle for viewers. There's too much of a fictionalized story to be a doc, but without its backdrop of the PyeongChang Olympics, the film wouldn't be a compelling rom-com either - so it's difficult to say who exactly this movie is for. Perhaps the very narrow overlap between fans of the Olympics, fans of rom-coms and those interested in guerilla filmmaking. Olympic Dreams certainly had the potential to be a compelling backstage look at the Olympic Athlete Village and a romantic comedy, but it doesn't do either very well and winds up mostly falling flat.
Olympic Dreams is now playing in a limited release. It is 85 minutes long and rated PG-13 for some language and sexual references.
