Ice Princess

Enjoyably lightweight and occasionally stirring, Ice Princess escapes the obnoxious, teen comedy | Andrew Coffin

Ice Princess is the type of movie that lays everything out in the first scene. As Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg) skates gracefully on a small pond in front of her house without a care in the world, her mother (Joan Cusack) taps on a windowpane from inside and holds up a math book.

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More problematic than the film's obviousness, though, is the way the academics vs. athletics conflict concludes. It’s not particularly which one comes out on top—this is a sports movie—it's who has to apologize. (Here's a hint: The apology takes place at an ice rink.)

This is becoming as much a cliché as the other plot devices found here, but it's much more frustrating. It echoes the weakest aspect of Finding Nemo, an otherwise fantastic film. Nemo, in a jarring moment early in the story, literally says to his dad, "I hate you." Yet who is it who apologizes at the end? Not Nemo—it's his dad.