Pond Hockey

This may be the only hockey film to open with a quote from Thoreau (and continue in that vein with Walt Whitman), so that while Pond Hockey is clearly aimed at “rink rats,” the film also strives for a pastoral quality. The title refers to the community-spirited sport played outdoors on a naturally frozen pool of water (no arenas or Zambonis)—the original and purest form of the game, we're told, unspoiled by big-money corporate franchises or intolerable pressures on athletes to succeed. Against the backdrop of the first-ever U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, played on Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, the film interweaves interviews with players past and present, who wax sentimental over their pond-hockey days. Subjects range from NHL greats (Wayne Gretzky included) to former Minnesota governor Wendell Anderson, from ESPN and New York Times reporters to ordinary guys who turn out for the big event (even the FDNY sent a team). Making the stick-and-puck frenzy as viscerally exciting onscreen as it is live continues to be a challenge, but director Tommy Haines achieves a nice mix between ice action and cutaways, while also gradually introducing the message that kids learning the game in a walled-in, regimented, high-stress environment just aren't having the same kind of fun. Recommended, overall. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)