Ice Princess

Directed by: Tim Fywell

Memorable quotes:

Joan Carlyle: I always tell my students : 'you"ll know your topic when you learn how to use your eyes.'

Tina Harwood: Look, I'm sorry but when the CIA wants to learn new dirty tricks they observe figure skaters and their moms.

Casey: "It worked!
Gen: Just like you said it would!
Casey: The computer doesn't make the jumps. That was all you."

Casey: "Gen, Gen! I'm... I'm not dressed up for a party.
Gen: Shake it: your hair. Now, no one will notice. Work the hair!"

Casey: An object is only as strong as its weakest point: Physics.

Casey: "You're Tina's son?
Teddy: Is that so hard to believe?
Casey: No, no, whoa. I just... I just thought...
Teddy: I was the help? I mean, I kinda am. Gen skates and I fix stuff."

Joan: "If I had gone to college when I was your age, maybe we wouldn't be living like this.
Casey: There is nothing wrong with the way we live!
Joan: I have not been able to give you a quarter of the things that I wanted to.
Casey: You've given me everything!"


Plot: Casey's dream is to become a figure skater, but she first needs to face her moms and her own fears in order to become what she's always wanted to be.

Review: 

Ice Princess is a sweet movie with good actors and a great soundtrack if you like pop music. With songs by great pop artists such as Madonna, Björk, Michelle Branch, Aly&Aj, Superchick, Emma Roberts, etc. you will certainly enjoy the music if nothing else.

Ice Princess is of course an homage to figure skating, but I think that it is much more than that. In fact, I believe that figure skating is used here as a pretext to discuss more serious matters, such as the importance of never giving up on your dreams, for you might just achieve them one day. So yes, everything is not accurate when it comes to figure skating, and some of the information given about it are wrong, but I just don't think it matters as I don't think that the movie actually revolves around that sport.

I really like that Ice Princess highlights how working hard in life might just pay off in the end, but also the importance of living your very own dream, and nobody else's. In the movie, both Casey's and Gen's moms believe they are doing the right thing by pushing their daughters to do what they think they should want to do. Nevertheless, things don't work out the way they wanted to, since their daughters cannot be passionate and fight for something that they didn't chose in he first place. I think that the mums motivations behind being pushy were actually very honourable, but they just lost themselves in the process. In fact, they didn't realize that what they wanted for their daughters might not have been what their daughters wanted for themselves, and that they had their own dreams. 

I think this was very wisely portrayed, and I'm sure that lots of parents transfer their feelings and dreams to their children, so I believe that the theme chosen for this movie is pretty accurate. Hopefully, it will help parents and children understand each other a bit more while discussing the film together.

Now, this movie also had an all star cast, which made it even more believable, since for the most part it was fairly well acted. Lots of you probably know Kim Cattrall for her role in Sex and the City, while Joan Cusack is a recognized actress. Youngster will also appreciate seeing Michelle Trachtenberg, who played in Buffy the Vampire Slayer along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, while others will probably enjoy the presence of Hayden Panettiere, who became famous after starring in the T.V. show Heroes. I personally found it amusing to see Hayden Panettiere and Joan Cusack star together in yet another movie. About a year earlier I had the delight of seeing them both reunited on screen for the first time in Raising Helen, and I was therefore glad to see them both again.
All in all, I'd say that Ice Princess is a nice family movie, and I sure hope that parents will enjoy watching this with their children, especially at a time when less and less films deliver a nice message to its young audience.


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