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Ice Princess By Harry Forbes Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- Ever since the stream of Sonja Henie musicals in the 1930s, skating has been popular fodder for the big screen. Though not a musical (unless you count some prerecorded warbling on the rink), "Ice Princess" (Disney) is a fairly standard but not uninteresting tale of high school honor student Casey (Michelle Trachtenberg), who is a whiz at physics but whose heart is secretly set on professional figure skating. She decides to do a science project about the correlation between skating and physics, but as she watches her classmates, Gen (Hayden Panettiere), Nikki (Kirsten Olson) and Tiffany (Jocelyn Lai ), do their virtuoso thing on the ice, she implores Gen's divorcee mother -- former champion Tina (Kim Cattrall, in a switch from her familiar "Sex and the City" strutting) -- to train her as well. The alternately warm and frosty Tina -- who's more concerned about her own daughter's advancement -- tells her it will cost her, so Casey dutifully takes a job at a hot-dog stand to earn the needed fee. Meanwhile, Casey's mother, Joan (Joan Cusack), a teacher who has already established that she takes a dim view of skating, is determined that Casey study physics at Harvard instead. Casey excels on the ice, and before long feels she just might have a chance at the championship. She pays for the extra training by coaching her skating classmates on improving their moves using the surefire principles of physics. Her advances on the ice are watched with admiration by Gen's ice-cleaning, Zamboni-driving brother, Teddy (Trevor Blumas). (Her girlish awkwardness melts as her prowess on the ice develops.) But as the big competition approaches, Casey's conflicted feelings about her future, her secrecy from her mother, cut-throat competition from the other skaters, and Tina's not-so-nice side come into dramatic conflict. Eventually, Gen must tell Tina that she's not really cut out to be a skater, as Casey will (you just know) inform Joan that skating is her real passion. Tim Fywell's modest film (which seems even more so because of Lester Cohen's rather drab production design) -- thematically similar to the 1977 ballet film "The Turning Point" -- is reasonably absorbing for all its plot predictability. "The Princess Diaries" scriptwriter Meg Cabot wrote the story, turned into a script by Hadley Davis. The skating sequences are enjoyable, with Trachtenberg doing much but not all of the actual stunts, and the behind-the-scenes ambience is convincing. The performances, within the one-dimensional demands of the plot, are good. Trachtenberg makes an appealing heroine, and Cusack and Cattrall are fine, especially when they have their inevitable confrontation. All comes out well in the end, and there are good themes of friendship, honesty and following one's dream. Casey eventually comes clean with her mother, ultimately demonstrating that honesty is the best policy, difficult though it may be. All in all, this is unobjectionable family entertainment. Though it will appeal most to young girls, their parents (and even brothers) will find it more than tolerable. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I -- general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G -- general audiences. - - - Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. END Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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