Ice Dance Movies

It was an ice dance themed New Year for me - not involving any actual ice dancing, don't be ridiculous: me on ice resembles that shaky footage you get of newly born foals taking their first steps, only blindfolded, and in a force nine gale. And, indeed, on ice. But I did stay in with a close friend watching ice dance movies: The Cutting Edge, The Cutting Edge: Going For The Gold, and Blades of Glory.

Blades of Glory was hilarious, and I'm not contractually obliged to say that because it is made by Red Hour, the new home of Gods Behaving Badly, honest. The Cutting Edge: Going For The Gold was the most charmless piece of film that I've ever seen (it's really saying something when ten minutes into a romcom you are desperately hoping that the vile couple do not get together.)

The Cutting Edge, however, was completely brilliant. Sure, it's a formulaic romantic comedy with a plotline that you can figure out in its entirety just from looking at the box. (Yes it's an ice dance love story - so that happens - and that - yes, and that. And that. And the ending? Yes. That.) On the other hand, either you are the kind of person who loves the idea of a film about a stuck up rich ice dancer who is paired with a redneck former ice hockey player to dance at the Olympics, or you are not. If you are not, fair enough, but leave these pleasures alone for the rest of us.

Anyway, what really sets The Cutting Edge apart, aside from its great performances (notably Moira Kelly, just about making up for her supremely irritating turn on The West Wing, and lovely, sexy, where-is-he-now DB Sweeney) and fabulous ice dance sequences, is the script. It is very sharp, very funny, and very clever. In particular, the character of Kate (Kelly) is written as a mouthy, grumpy, opinionated, intelligent, unreasonable, funny woman who is completely lovable from the beginning to the end, and never, as is usually the case in this kind of film, has to be humiliated, brought down, and admit that she really needs to be looked after. She does get dropped on her head on ice at high speed several times through the film, but it's that kind of movie.

In fact the script was so suspiciously good that I had to look it up, and it turns out that it was written by Tony Gilroy, who lately penned or co-penned all three Bourne movies and Michael Clayton. Which explains a lot. So if you fancy a charming romantic comedy, written by someone highly intelligent with a fine skill at writing tight thrillers, ON ICE, this movie is for you. And if you don't, I can't help thinking that you are lost. You do know what this blog is about, don't you?