ICE PRINCESS BY ALICIA POTTER

At first, this Cinderella story about a physics whiz turned figure skater (Michelle Trachtenberg of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) appears to be a schmaltzy hybrid of The Princess Diaries and Ice Castles. But then Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall swaggers in as a hard-bitten coach, all glowers and squints and tough talk about triple loops, and it’s clear that this is the Johnny Guitar of ice-skating movies. In the repressed Mercedes McCambridge role is a hapless Joan Cusack as the heroine’s Harvard-obsessed feminist mother; when she discovers a slinky red skating costume in her daughter’s bag, it’s if she’s turned up crystal meth. Such howlingly campy dramatics actually rescue the film from its halting start, as do the inevitable salchows and sitspins and the arrival of a knight on shining Zamboni (Trevor Blumas). Not exactly what you’d expect from director Tim Fywell, who last helmed the lush 2003 teen romance I Capture the Castle. This earnest allegory about passion, hyper-parenting, and the agonies of a popped lutz is wobbly at best. (92 minutes) At the Apple Valley, Entertainment, Flagship, Holiday, Providence Place 16, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.