Ice Princess
Directed by Tim Fywell
Written by Hadley Davis
Starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall, Hayden Panettiere
Release Date March 18th, 2005
Published March 13th, 2025
If not for the far too young passing of actress Michelle Trachtenberg, the 20th anniversary of the movie Ice Princess likely would have passed unnoticed. Though this is a quite good for what it is sports movie, it's not exactly a top of mid movie for anyone outside a few nostalgic millennials with failed dreams of winning Olympic gold in Figure Skating. In 2005 and thereafter, more than a few young girls lived vicariously through Trachtenberg's overachieving academic with Harvard in her future who develops a sudden interest in figure skating through the use of math.
Casey (Trachtenberg) has been on her way to Harvard University from the womb. Her mother, Joan (Joan Cusack), isn't a maniac intent on forcing her daughter to go to Harvard, just very supportive of the idea and proud of her accomplishments. Thus, it is to Joan's dismay that Casey decides to get back into figure skating. Joan sees it as a distraction from her stated academic goals. Casey meanwhile, posits figure skating as a physics experiment, developing an algorithm that not only helps her become an incredible skater in mere weeks, it also helps the other girls building their figure skating dreams including Gen (Hayden Panettiere), an early rival and soon friend of Casey.
Through Gen, Casey meets Gen's brother, Teddy (Trevor Blumas), and begins a tentative romance. Add this to Casey's summer job, and you an understand why Joan starts freaking out over Casey having little time to focus on her studies. A boyfriend, a job, figure skating practice and competitions pile up alongside Casey's Harvard project and everything seems to suffer, save for figure skating. Indeed, Casey has gotten so good that when it appears she may qualify for an advanced tournament ahead of Gen, Gen's mother and their coach, Tina (Kim Cattrall), sabotages Casey to assure that Gen gets to move on to the big tournament.
Find my full length review at Geeks.Media linked here.
