Ice Princess

Ice Princess is a 2005 American teen sports comedy-drama film directed by Tim Fywell, written by Hadley Davis from a story by Princess Diaries creator Meg Cabot and Davis. It stars Joan Cusack, Michelle Trachtenberg, Kim Cattrall and Hayden Panettiere. The film focuses on Casey Carlyle, a normal teenager who gives up a promising future academic life in order to pursue her new-found dream of being a professional figure skater. The film was released on March 18, 2005. It was a financially unsuccessful at the box office, grossing $27.6 million during its theatrical run against a production budget of $25 million. Plot In the fictional city of Millbrook, Connecticut, Casey Carlyle, a very smart and talented science student, pursues a scholarship to Harvard University. For the scholarship, she must present a personal summer project about physics. While watching a figure skating competition with her mathematically inclined best friend Ann, Casey realizes that her favorite childhood hobby, ice skating, would make a perfect project. She decides to try to improve her own skating by applying physics and what she has discovered from watching other skaters. Casey becomes proficient and skips two levels to become a junior skater, following a recital. She helps junior skaters Gennifer "Gen" Harwood, Tiffany Lai, and Nikki Fletcher improve their skating by using algorithms generated by her computer. Torn between her Harvard dream and her growing love of skating, Casey has difficulty juggling schoolwork, skating, and a part-time job. Joan Carlyle, Casey's mother, attempts to prevent her daughter from skating due to her declining academic performance. Meanwhile, tension arises between Casey's mother and her coach Tina Harwood, a disgraced former skater who also happens to be Gen's mom. Tina, who manages the rink where Casey trains, has Gen on a strict training program. During a competition where both Casey and Gen compete, Tina sees Casey may outrank Gen and sabotages Casey's performance by buying her new skates. Unaware of the danger of unbroken-in skates, Casey's resulting long program is riddled with poor jumps and several falls. Upon being informed of Tina's intent behind her seemingly kind gesture, Casey lashes out at her and mistakenly assumes her children were equally involved in the plot. She ranks fifth in the competition and can only qualify for sectionals if any of the top four back out.