Le feu sur la glace

I was twelve years old when I saw this film. Then, I thought it was great. Now, at twenty-one, I think it's awesome. Some may criticize the "inaccuracies" of the skating, but if one looks closely at the credits, world renowned skater Robin Cousins is the technical advisor and skating scene coordinator. Also, the pairs skaters they compete against are also, as far as I can tell, are real skaters. While they probably wouldn't jump into major competitions right away, they did it this way most likely for timesake. It's a sweet love story that is refreshingly free of violence (save the occasional slapshot), gratutious sex, and vulgar language. It is a delight for young and old combining chemestry, believability, and awesome skating sequences. I give it a nine and a half out of ten; if for nothing else, then for the warm fuzzies you get from watching it.

As a figure skater, my movie choices of my profession are rather limited. If you take out Ronin, in which Katarina Witt is shot, Ice Castle, which I hated, the Cutting Edge is practically the only one left. I loved it. Sure the movie wasn't realistic, but it was good none the less. Wholesome and the skating sequences weren't bad. I loved the Pamchenko. My parter and I even attempted it a few times. Overall, definitely watch this if you are a fan of skating or just have an afternoon to watch a movie. I've seen it more than 20 times...this movie is timeless. My coach plays clips from this movie to us when we are waiting for our turn to compete and even at the celebration parties. I love it.

Take a handsome young ex-hockey star who could never do much other than skate, a prima-donna figure-skater who finds fault with every world-class partner thrown her way and laughs at said ex-hockey star, and an obligatory crazy-genius Soviet expatriate, send them all after Olympic glory, and you have The Cutting Edge.

Lead characters Doug Dorsey (D.B. Sweeney) and Kate Moseley (Moira Kelly) are star-crossed skaters: an eye injury at the Olympics ruined Doug's hockey career, while an ill-timed fall in the pairs figure skating finals leaves Kate's destiny unfulfilled. Coach Anton Pamchenko (Roy Dotrice) fishes Dorsey out of a construction site and transplants him to the Moseley estate in Greenwich. The fish-out-of-water concept was not as blatant as Pauly Shore's movies, but it was definitely there.

The stereotypical supporting cast did its job: Terry O'Quinn is the wealthy, doting father who is either obsessed with an Olympic medal for his daughter, or obsessed with his daughter who happens to want an Olympic medal (the movie never really makes clear which), while snobby fiancé Hale Forrest (Dwier Brown) is forgettable yet necessary to the plot, as is Walter Dorsey (Chris Benson), Doug's stereotypical nuts-and-bolts, slightly homophobic and very skeptical brother.

With Breakfast Club-like cost-efficiency, the film sticks to the dialogue between the few main characters, who are on screen for the large majority of the film. The questions are timeless: will Kate marry her snobby fiancé or will passion erupt from the love-hate relationship with her skating partner? Will they overcome the judging bias against ex-hockey players and win gold? Will Kate loosen up? Will Doug gain some culture and refinement? One could say that this film is predictable, but that is a good thing. Films like The Cutting Edge lose very little even if you've heard the story told a hundred times in a dozen ways. Suspense is not the goal here; romance is, and this film serves up more of it than almost every media-hyped "blockbuster" I've ever seen.

OK, so the plot is formulaic. There is nothing new here, really. Or is there? I have seen this movie a few times, and always liked it. I think it's the acting and dialog.

The acting is a cut above what you would expect from the movie. The female lead is a prima donna. I felt like her complex human emotions at times were fairly believable. Sometimes she's bitchy. Sometimes confused. Sometimes you like her.

The male lead is perhaps not quite as good. But they did not fall into the pattern of simply making him another dumb jock. In a scene where they have both had too much to drink, I felt he reacted in a very realistic way. He delivers this great line in the movie to her after she insists he button the top button of his costume. Something to the effect of 'if buttoning that button made the difference between a long happy life and a painful death, he would not give her the satisfaction.' It was a perfectly acted scene, IMO.

The dialog was much better than expected in this type of movie. There's some pretty funny lines. And some generally great exchanged between the actors that are far less dull than you would expect. If I put this into the category of sports movies, I would say it really rates well partly due to dialog.

OK, so you can predict the plot. Obviously, it's a formulaic movie. But along the way, they throw in a few curves, and the characters react in many ways like normal humans would in the same situation, at least in my opinion.

If you like the love/hate romance movies, and triumphant sporting movies, I think this is up your alley.

p.s. chick flicks are not my favored genre, so the fact I liked this movie, says something I think (because it's a bit of a chick flick at times.)

The Cutting Edge is a classic movie and one which I never get tired of watching.

The chemistry between Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney really sells this picture, even before you see the impressive scenery and fantastic skating sequences.

The script is filled with quotable gems, (It's not like his nose was perfect) and what could be a fairly thin story (that, OK, has been done before) is lifted firmly out of the cliche zone by first class direction, a thumping early 90's pop soundtrack and breathtaking choreography.

I can't fault this movie - it's one of my top five - and would recommend it as a family favourite.

This movie gets a very enthusiastic 10/10 from me.