Ice Princess

On Sunday March 20 2005 at 7:10pm, I went to see the film Ice Princess at Coral Ridge Mall, a film about a girl that has big dreams. Unfortunately, those big dreams are apparently at odds with each other, and several of the dreams actually are spur of the moment decisions. The main character is Casey played by Michelle Trachtenberg. She takes on a project for school to help her get into Harvard, only to have the project itself become more important than going to Harvard.

There are tensions between her and her mother, tensions between her and other more popular girls, tensions between her and the ice skating rink owner/coach, and so on. Despite all these concerns, people that get angry at each other for assorted reasons quickly make up and start liking each other. This is very convenient to make the movie a feel good fest and make the movie happier in the long run, but not so realistic a portrayal for how life really functions.

On a positive note, I did enjoy watching the rival competition Hayden Panettiere playing Gen Harwood (the ice rink owner's daughter) who I likewise saw in Racing Stripes earlier this year. She is endearing even when she's supposed to be the popular, rich girl you don't like.

This film isn't too bad. It is enjoyable to watch, and I would have preferred to see more of the figure skating programs themselves than closeups of the faces of people watching the programs, mainly because I enjoy watching figure skating. If you don't, you defnitely don't want to go see this movie, and if you do, you may want to wait to see it on DVD. I rate this film an okay at the higher end of that spectrum.

Please feel free to comment on this review or on the movie itself at the forum thread devoted to it at this location.