Before screenwriter Tony Gilroy tackled legal chicanery in “Michael Clayton” and corporate spy wars in “Duplicity,” he focused on the fanciful world of ice skating.
Gilroy’s 1992 film “The Cutting Edge” isn’t as high brow as his recent efforts, but in some ways it’s his most entertaining work to date.
That isn’t ’90s nostalgia talking.
“The Cutting Edge” has its fair share of cloying slow-motion shots, and the soundtrack all but screams, “Like me … please?”
But the sweet love story is strong enough to survive cheesy photography, the occasional mullet and the ham-handed instincts of director Paul Michael Glaser of “Starsky and Hutch” fame.
Young hockey phenom Doug Dorsey (D.B. Sweeney) suffers a career-ending eye injury during a critical Olympic game.
Remember when amateur athletes competed for hockey gold?
So when a Russian skating coach asks him to tryout for a new gig he decides to give it a try. It involves ice skating – how bad could it be?
The coach wants Doug to team up with Kate (Moira Kelly), a spoiled ice princess who can’t hold on to a partner.
It’s easy to see why.
Kate is rude, impatient and coarse, and that’s on a good day. But something clicks between the two of them, a professional spark that could ignite an Olympic worthy pairing.
Kelly and Sweeney have chemistry to burn on – and off – the ice, one reason “The Cutting Edge” has built up a reservoir of good will in the last 18 years.
Kate could have been a nightmare to play, what with her sass and self-important posturing. Lesser actresses would have seized on the tics, and little else.
Kelly conveys the fragile little girl behind the facade from the moment she skates onto the screen. It’s a terrific performance, and it’s a shame she didn’t emerge from the film as a Meg Ryan alternative.
The film wisely avoids the kind of obvious pitfalls modern rom-coms too often trip over. Kate’s boyfriend isn’t a jerk by any stretch. And Kate’s father is given some depth despite a lack of screen time. Wish Terry O’Quinn, currently seen on “Lost,” could have lost that creepy mustache.
“Edge” does fall flat a times, floundering on sports movie cliches and a perfectly timed booty call to cue the final act reconciliation. And anyone who can’t tell where the story is headed hasn’t seen a screen romance before.
But “The Cutting Edge” skates past such quibbles, earning a well deserved Silver medal in the hearts of movie lovers.
(Photo: Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney make a winning couple in “The Cutting Edge.”)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The cast really made this one work. I have no idea his background, but Sweeney has always oozed blue-collar authenticity. Kelly worked the brat angle well and kept the character sympathetic, and O’Quinn lights up everything he is in. He was better in 20 minutes of “The Rocketeer” than Leo’s entire three hours in “The Aviator.”
What JohnFNWayne said.
I LOVE this movie. Love it like a little girl loves a pony. I can watch it over and over and over and over…
Oh D.B. Sweeney, how I loved you in 1992.