Out this week is Chalet Girl, a British comedy that was boosted by a £800,000 stimulus from the UKFC. Like Tom Hooper’s awards-winner, it is fiercely British, and casts its gaze over one of the nation’s pet obsessions, class. The script, penned by newcomer, Tom Williams, tries incredibly hard to please, stuffing every scene with sight gags, cheap gags, physical gags, broadly caricatured characters and plenty of fish out of water gags. Few hit home, but thanks to a pleasant cast, it isn’t entirely offensive. Bill Nighy provides his salary’s worth as Jonny’s quirky, feline father, while Tamsin Egerton, as Kim’s colleague, Georgie, manages to maintain something of a comic composure while delivering god-awful jokes about Facebook. Felicity Jones is an absolutely delightful screen presence, even if her natural, pretty charm isn’t an easy fit for Kim’s supposedly uncouth, tomboyish personality. On a basic level, the character seems to have been misconceived, with her snarky, sarcastic witticisms being as overwritten as her cluelessness in the face of upper class life is unconvincing. That said, she nevertheless stands out among most young female leads by having a passion that isn’t simply the pursuit of romance. Even if her skill is never doubted and her mastery of snowboarding is remarkably breezy (a short montage should do the trick), her desire to win challenges the usual gender stereotypes for such cinematic fluff. Kim and Jonny’s class divide could easily be replaced by any sort of complicating factor from the flock of will they-won’t they romantic tales that precede this one. And to transform the lingering trauma of the car crash which killed her mother into Kim’s stumbling block, preventing her from achieving snowboarding success, is a remarkably callous creative decision. Like The King’s Speech, Chalet Girl doesn’t manage to nail anything down regarding the British obsession with class, both favouring to bring two differing backgrounds together, and see the lower sort ruffle the feathers of the upper class until both find a middle ground. It is this conflict, between cynicism and ambition, that begins to define Chalet Girl. And with its product placement, perfectly-pitched soundtrack of recent pop rock tunes, and cameos from T4 presenters, it isn’t hard to guess which side won out. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here.
Chalet Girl Review
<span title='2025-08-11 00:00:00 +0000 UTC'>August 11, 2025</span> · 2 min · 379 words · Jason Nolasco