Despite a pretty cool concept as a creative project and a respectable technical production filmed at the 2016 Winter Olympic games (in South Korea), the story lacks breadth. The two leads deliver strong performances that endear, but Olympic Dreams gathers very little momentum unwinding its thin love story.

Because it's filmed against the backdrop of an actual event and seems to employ loosely scripted dialogue (with heavy reliance on improvisation), I spent the first ten minutes trying to decide if this was a documentary or work of narrative fiction. Such attention to filmmaking both intrigued and distracted me. The dialogue/speech patterns feel very real, but sadly not so engaging. At the end of the day, Olympic Dreams is a narrative, though filmmakers interject "interviews" with real athletes - Christopher Guest style. These moments provide mildly-amusing filler.

The film excels at communicating awkward loneliness, longing, and a wobbly uncertainty for the future. When some boldness spits forward perhaps to spark, it quickly retreats, and repeats. After rooting for these two, you might lose your patience with them.

That said, a 25-40 minute version could possibly make a sweet short film.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --