Thin Ice

Black lesbian Steffi needs a partner for the skating pairs in the Gay Games, and the only gal good enough in the time available is shy Natalie (Avery). Straight, white, middle-class, she's Steffi's polar opposite (though Steffi's strangely free from family, or indeed black culture). Natalie's own family suffers from a strange premature-ageing disease. Mum looks like her gran, her sister (Higgins, camping it) seems old enough to be her mum, and Nat herself will clearly never see 21 again. The predictable playing out of the plot (will Nat fall for Steffi and her schemes?) is underlined by naff dialogue. It's not all disaster, though. Williams' Steffi and Dreyfus as her gay photographer friend find an emotional balance that anchors the film, and it would take a harder heart than mine not to be charmed by the women's blithe performance in the Gay Games.