Ice Princess

Ice Princess was, in the barest of terms, a feel good family- perhaps with a more mother-daughter slant- movie.

Actress Michelle Trachtenburg, perhaps better-known for her role in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Inspector Gadget", put on an excellent performance. She portrays the clumsiness, shyness, and insecurities of her character, Casey Carlyle, with incredible believability. The effort that she put into learning to skate for the movie really shows as well. Her movements were graceful and solid.

Hayden Panitierre's performance was a solid one, as usual. She continues even today to display a talent beyond her years. Whilst many of the actors and actresses paying high schoolers in cinemas are actually in their early (or late) twenties, Hayden Panitierre was only around 14 years old during this movie. Yet she manages to fit in seamlessly with the more experienced Michelle and the respective actresses playing their mothers, Kim Cattrall and Joan Cusack.

Panitierre's main weakness in the film is her skating. Her movements simply weren't very fluid and graceful, and when they were, they were always on the more simplistic moves. In fact, most of her skating was incredibly simplistic.

The plot of the movie is quite simple. It follows the story of Casey Carlyle, a physics wiz kid who has to choose between going to Harvard or following her desire to skate. Her mother, a college English professor, holds a demeaning attitude towards skating, considering it neither a real sport nor a valid career option.

On the flip side of the coin, there is Gen Harwood- the most popular girl in the school, and the daughter of former big-time skater Tina Harwood (Kim Cattrall). Her mother relentlessly pushes her towards skating, even though Gen has no real passion for it.

The girls' paths crossed. Of course, the result is pretty easy to guess.

The main faults of this movie are its goofs. Gen Harwood, even though she is slightly out of shape and not very passionate about skating, should after years of practice under her strict mother, have been at least a little better than Casey Carlyle. Even from the time the movie started, Hayden Panitierre was clearly a worst skater than Michelle Trachtenburg- so much worst, that it acted as a glitch in the storyline.

Another goof would be the short time that it took Casey to become a truly accomplished skater. Even with "natural talent" and years beforehand of skating on her pond in the winter- as well as biking everywhere she went as an excuse for her good physical condition- it did not make sense. A friend of Gen's told her, "It took me 2 years to land my double." Guess how long it took Casey? Nonetheless, the movie seems to get away with it in a sense. The soundtrack is beautiful, and Michelle Trachtenburg was wonderful to watch.

In a way though, the movie seems a little insulting to real life skaters, who truly put years of effort into their sport. Yet even when the movie is insulting those skaters through Casey's under-earned brilliance, it points out the hardships of skating through the problems that Gen and her friends face. Gen's grade's suffered, and the father of one of her friends had to work two jobs to pay for his daughter's skating expenses. All of the girls were on a strict diet.

Although Tina Harwood helps the movie by her many lines talking about the difficulties and hardships of skating, and even though we know Casey did train, so little of the training was shown. Emphasis on training, to me, is a must for a truly superb sports movie.

Along with Tina, another character who seemed to bring the movie a little more down to earth was Nikki, a.k.a "the Jumping Shrimp" played by Kirsten Olsen. She was the youngest, but the most brilliant of the skaters, in reality and in the movie- more than likely because Kirsten is an actual figure skater.

In summary, the film has its good and bad points. As noted before, though, the movie doesn't focus a lot on the training and doesn't seem to be about keeping things real or accurate in that sense. It focuses more on Casey's relationship with her mother and her following her dream, and the fears and insecurities surrounding that. Those are the times when the film is truly brilliant, and gives it an almost magical feeling despite its flaws.

If you are a fan of ice skating you will either love this or hate this movie. I cheated and decided to take the middle ground. In a way, you could call this a guilty pleasure for me. I enjoyed it and could see myself watching it again, but I feel that it failed on many levels.

7/10.

Ice Princess was typical family fluff that was an enjoyable hour and 1/2 escape from the tensions of real life. With that in mind, it was a great success as entertainment and release from stress.

The plot is simple and "age worn" - a teen named Casey (Michelle Trachtenberg) is torn between fulfilling the dreams of her parent or following her own dreams. Nothing new here. Yet, the supporting characters of Gen Harwood (Hayden Panettiere) and her mother Tina (Kim Cattrall) also have the same situation. Tina, a skating coach, wants her daughter to become a skating champion, an achievement Tina was unable to fulfill in her own skating career. Thus, both Gen and Casey have something in common: pleasing mom or pleasing themselves.

Yet, Gen and Casey were dramatically different. Casey was a brilliant student with her eyes on Harvard while being gifted at skating, too. Meanwhile, Gen excelled only by becoming a slave to skating and sacrificing her schoolwork.

And it is with that difference that I believe Disney missed the potential. The "Casey's" of the world are few and far between, and it is difficult to relate to them: "Oh, gee. Will I go to Harvard because I'm brilliant at school? Or will I become a skating champion because I'm brilliant on the ice?" Because she is so distant from the vast majority of people, she never truly grabbed my empathy.

Gen, on the other hand, is very, very real. She is being pushed into a sport by a parent, and her social life and academics are suffering. She faces a real dilemma. Plus, she has no hope of excelling at either academics or skating. Her social life is her only escape from this vise. And Gen is endearing because she seems to have a "good heart" despite the difficulty. And how often we see kids with "good hearts" trapped by situations.

I believe that most of us can relate much better to Gen than to Casey. I would have preferred the character of Gen to be the focus of the story with Casey's character in the supporting role. It would be tougher, grittier, and more meaningful to the audience.

Yeah, we all cheered for Casey, but I was cheering for Gen even more.

I'm going to "skate" over some of the more obvious flaws... Yes, Casey's physics project is laughable. Yes, the message -- that talent and independent spirit will shine, and that parents and children must respect each other's dreams -- is hackneyed. Sure, this is a feel-good movie aimed at tweens. But here's an ugly secret: Many an emotionally arrested adult derives guilty pleasure from these perky underdog flicks.

The compelling reason to watch IP, however, is two old (sorry, older) pros -- and one up-and-comer. We all knew Joan Cusack could act (indeed she's one of our top comedic thespians), but who knew she could believably play an initially unsympathetic tight-assed "Type A" mom? And Kim Cattrall portrays the conniving Tonya Harding-esquire bitch (with the requisite heart of gold) admirably. Watching these two pros interact is quite the treat: Note how expressive their faces are, even when delivering (or reacting to) dialogue that skates on thin ice indeed.

Michelle Trachtenberg makes a appealing protagonist, but the revelation is Hayden Panettiere who perfectly embodies (both physically and psychologically) the driven golden girl (with that requisite heart of gold, natch). She cemented her status as a young actress to watch in Bring It On 3 (yet another perky, underrated underdog flick... that almost matched the cutes of the original). Additional kudos to the energetic monsters who portray the Jumping Shrimp and Zoe the punker pincushion who skates to Pink.

Hardly a gold medalist, and admittedly formulaic, but certainly deserving of better reviews than it received upon release. Watch those three (well, five) gals go at it and you'll agree.

'Ice Princess' is good. Nothing more, nothing less.

There are enjoyable performances from Michelle Trachtenberg (Casey), Hayden Panettiere (Gen), Kim Cattrall (Tina) and Joan Cusack (Joan - creative!). Even if the latter two's characters are irritating at times, but that is intentional to be fair. There's also an appearance for Erik King, which I guess you could say was a "Surprise!" ...

Props are in order for Christophe Beck, who I thought did a top job with the music - all of which suited events very well. The premise, which entails figure skating, is entertaining enough to see unfold. It's nothing special, but is certainly a harmless and fine production from 2005.

This movie was typical Disney; a sweet feel-good story despite some mediocre acting and plot holes. Michelle Trachtenberg is a very likable heroine, and both Joan Cusack and Kim Cattrall perform admirably in their respective roles. Granted, the "child breaks away from parent's desires to follow her own dream" story has been done many times, and this version is nothing special, but it's good for us well-intentioned mothers to be reminded every so often to let our children find their own paths in life.

My only big gripe is with what is presented as Casey's incredible physics discoveries. Some of the statements are downright wrong (pulling in your arms while spinning DECREASES, not increases, your moment of inertia), and all the equations shown in the movie are nothing but basic laws of Newtonian mechanics. While the target pre-teen audience will be fooled, anyone older who's ever taken a physics class will not. Come on, Hollywood...with all the recent publicity about whether women are suited for math and science, please don't insult our intelligence by assuming that scientific details are unimportant in a movie marketed to young girls.