It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Released in 1992, "The Cutting Edge" revolves around a sassy female figure skater who can't keep a partner, Kate (Moira Kelly), and a hockey player, Doug (D.B. Sweeney), who's injury forces him to consider being the girl's partner. They seek Olympic gold with the help of their coach (Roy Dotrice) and the backing of Kate's rich father (Terry O'Quinn). Rachelle Ottley is on hand as Kate's rival for Doug's attention.The plot is reminiscent of 1978's "Ice Castles" in regards to the romance between a figure skater and hockey player, but this is more of a formula sports flick. Moira Kelly is brassy in the manner of Carrie on The King of Queens (Leah Remini) whereas Sweeney comes across as a more likable Ben Affleck. People complain that they're so opposite that they couldn't possibly be a couple in real life, but there's a reason "opposites attract" is a saying. My wife and I, for instance, are total opposites, but have been happily married for over twenty years. Anyway, everything clicks for an amusing albeit predictable sports movie/drama/romance. The film runs 101 minutes and was shot mostly in the greater Toronto area, but also Lake Placid, NY (the hallway where the couple first collide, the ORDA Complex) and Pasadena, CA (the interior of the château in France).GRADE: B-

After viewing The Cutting Edge I realize that I saw some of this same story a few weeks ago when I watched Sonja Henie in It's Your Pleasure. In that film Michael O'Shea is a professional hockey player who gets banned for life after slugging a referee and Henie recruits and trains him to be her partner in her ice show.No professionals here just talented amateurs. D.B. Sweeney takes a nasty blow during the Olympics in Calgary which robs him of peripheral vision on one side, bad for hockey player where you have to see some opponents coming up on both sides if you have the puck. His career, his hopes of making it to the National Hockey League is over.At the same time Moira Kelly is a talented, but really temperamental figure skater, a Tonya Harding in the making, who blows the finals at Calgary when she and her partner fail to land a big move. She's decided she needs a new partner. If she's to do well at Albertville four years later she has to have a new partner. But the problem is that she's got such a bad reputation no one will skate with her.I think you can see where this one is going without too much trouble. The problem I had with The Cutting Edge is the same one I had with the Sonja Henie film, the skills for hockey skating aren't the same for figure skating. I really can't see a Maurice Richard or a Gordie Howe ever making it in figure skating.Still Sweeney and Kelly are an attractive couple and through some clever editing, distance and rear view cinematography, and shots of them from the neck up on ice you do get the feeling you are watching them if only for a moment. Of course Kelly will never be confused with Sonja Henie and they didn't even try to actually show Michael O'Shea as a figure skater. But both Sweeney and Kelly look far better than James Stewart, Joan Crawford, and Lew Ayres did as skaters in Ice Follies Of 1939.This is definitely a nice film for fans of figure skating and young romance.

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.)

I watched the sequel first, I thought that it was pretty good. So I watched this one after, wow, I am totally impressed. The camera person certainly did a much better job than the person who shot the second movie.In the sequel movie, you can clearly see the faces of those doubles, and instantly tell when they first appear. That breaks the continuity of that movie because you are constantly reminded that they are not the real deal. In this first movie, the cinematographer hid those doubles' identities very well with different angles and lighting, I certainly can't tell which is which. It looked as if those two characters can really skate.And they acted well, so you believed in them. In the sequel, those two actors played hard, but you can tell that they don't really have the connections.And it has that certain appeal of the 80's movie, the music, the clothes they wear. So it can be a good nostalgia movie for those who love the 80's.