Ice Princess [DVD]

This is a well-acted film I like Michelle Trachtenberg, who plays Casey. Even better, my favorite, Joan Cusak, plays Casey's mother, and this was brilliant casting. She has the ability to transmit the sense of intellect, anxiety and love all at once. I don't see enough of Cusak in films, so I was pleased she had a supporting role in Ice Princess.

Kim Cattrall as the coach is intense--she has to portray someone who is almost living vicarious through her students while she, a failed Olympian hopeful, has to struggle with the conflicting emotions of jealously and pride. Loved her.

The sport of figure skating is competitive to a fault (remember Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan?) This film gets that message across well. But the theme of growing up and finding onself by challenging oneself to grow and achieve is one that will suit the entire family and provide a lot of dinnertable discussion material.

This is a nice production, with a few extras (two music videos and audio commentary by the four actors, the obligatory deleted scenes, and surprisingly, an alternate opening.) This is a good selection for the family home DVD library--one that will probably get played over and over by the teens and pre-teens.

Michelle Trachtenberg plays Casey Carlyle, a science geek who loves skating out on the pond but is focused on winning a physics scholarship to Harvard. The story doesn't really work the high school misfit angle very hard, but it's not really the focus of the movie, anyway. Casey needs to come up with a personalized physics project to impress the Harvard recruiters, and so it is that she turns to ice skating with all of its angles, velocities, vectors, and mathematical implications as her ticket to achievement. It's not enough to watch and study the skaters training under the local coach Tina Harwood (Crow T. Robot's favorite actress, Kim Cattrall), though; she begins taking skating lessons herself (surrounded by much younger, competitive little students) to put her theories to the test, and she discovers she has some real talent. Before long, she's actually competing in sectionals - where she discovers just how cut-throat the figure skating profession can be. Standing at the first major crossroads of her life, Casey has to choose whether she will give up skating and go out and get that Harvard scholarship or if she will make the sacrifices necessary in order to see just how far she can go in the sport. Her mother and her coach complicate things. Casey's mother Joan (Joan Cusack) has always dreamed of her daughter matriculating at Harvard and finding lifelong success by using her brilliant mind, and she can't understand why Casey would even think about putting her academic future in jeopardy by pursuing what she sees as an impossible dream. Casey's coach, Tina, has always pushed her own daughter to succeed at figure skating, and she's rather ruthless about making that dream of hers come true - although it's really not what her daughter wants for herself. Joan and Tina could not be more different - yet in time we see they are surprisingly alike in terms of pushing their own dreams onto their daughters. It's a theme that any past, present, or future teenager knows well. In the end, Casey takes charge of her own life, risking not only Harvard but her close relationship with her mother. It may or may not be the best choice, but it is definitely the right choice for Casey.

The figure skating scenes are really well-done; a lot of the difficult moves are actually performed by doubles, but you'd never know it by watching the movie. You would also never know that two of the actresses are really skaters with no previous acting experience. The whole transformation of Casey from science geek novice on skates to medal-contending skater would never happen in the real world, nor would the actual competitions resemble those in the movie, but the film's story comes across as very believable. There's also a sweet touch of light romance on the side. It's a feel-good story that inspires you to pursue your own dreams, whatever they may be, and I enjoyed it immensely.

The DVD comes with some nice little extras. First, you have a number of deleted scenes, including a different opening to the film - one of these deleted scenes is quite interesting, for it would have put a much different spin on concluding events. Second, you have a couple of good music videos (Reach by Caleigh Peters and No One by Aly and A.J.) featuring plenty of shots from the film. The whole soundtrack of the film is excellent, by the way. Finally, you have an excellent commentary featuring four of the young actors. Most film commentaries tend to be extremely boring and surprisingly uninformative, but the commentary here is full of details and insight on the making of the film and is really a lot of fun to listen to because of the passion and fun these young stars bring to the whole experience of making the film. It would appear that Disney has done it again: Ice Princess is a wonderful film that is both fun and rewarding for viewers of all ages.