Unwritten

A cute, if unoriginal Disney movie (minor spoilers)

Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg) is a high school student who seeks to obtain the Helen Stoller Physics Scholarship to get into Harvard, but needs to pick a personal subject. Since she has an interest in ice skating, she decides to analyze the movement of figure skaters in relation to physics. That eventually leads to Casey realizing that she would like to compete as a skater in an upcoming competition.

Over the course of the movie, Casey strikes up a bond with Gen (Hayden Panettiere), one of the skaters. There are multiple moments, like Gen moving in slow motion from Casey’s perspective, that had me going ‘oh, so that’s why millennials were calling this their Heated Rivalry.’ You’re probably going to be much less emotionally invested in Teddy Harwood (Trevor Blumas), Casey’s actual love interest who, funnily enough, is also Gen’s brother.

Meanwhile, Tina Harwood (Kim Cattrall), Gen’s mom, is a disgraced former skater and the manager of the local ice rink. Tina is also Gen’s coach and considers that more of a priority than being her mom, pushing her daughter to give up her social life to focus on her career.  Gen has to flat-out lie to her mom to attend a party, where I guess we’re supposed to assume that the teenagers are drinking soda out of those solo cups in this G-rated movie.

Mom Theme

Casey has her own overbearing mother in Joan Carlyle (Joan Cusack), who’s been the one ‘strongly encouraging’ her to go to Harvard. Joan is a militant feminist. After she quotes someone, Casey says, “I’m guessing it was a woman [who said that].” Joan also, ironically, has a lot of internalized misogyny. She can’t get over the “twinkie little outfits” ice skaters wear and says that she and Casey have “evolved past flaunting [femininity].”

Naturally, one of Casey’s biggest obstacles is Joan’s lack of support. Of course, one of Joan’s objections is how a figure skater’s career doesn’t have a long shelf life, which the film indirectly confirms is correct. Tina later says that when skating officials considered lifting her suspension, she was too old at 26. Though Joan is still in the wrong for trying to vicariously succeed through her daughter without really considering what Casey wants.

The underlying message of Ice Princess is that mothers need to let their children choose their own paths (Superman spoilers), which is a pretty applicable theme for all parents. That’s the main thing I liked about this movie, along with its strong emotional core and the fact that the characters play off each other well. To me, that was enough to make up for the fact that you could probably predict everything that happens.