BEFORE: I know, it seems a little strange to be watching a film about a winter sport like figure skating here in the middle of summer. But a sports film is a sports film - they all share the same DNA, right? Besides, the Winter Olympics is just 7 months away, so I'm really ahead of the curve - and said Winter Olympics were in the news last week due to rumblings of a possible boycott over Russia's anti-gay policies. Which I think could be really bad news for some male figure skaters.
Anyway, D.B. Sweeney carries over from "Hardball", so that re-affirms my choice to transition this way.
THE PLOT: A tempermental but talented figure skater's coach recruits a hockey player to partner with her through the difficult training for Nationals and the Olympics.
AFTER: As often happens here at the Movie Year, an unintended secondary theme has surfaced. This chain was put together merely to reference different sports and find the commonalities among them, and the common thread this week turned out to be desperation. I can trace it all the way back to "Here Comes the Boom", where a teacher desperately needed to raise money to fund a school music program, through the boxing films, golfers who were desperate to regain their perfect swings, a baseball scout desperate to keep his job despite his age, and a man so desperate to escape his gambling debts he'd become a baseball coach. Oh, yeah, and the knuckleball was portrayed as the go-to pitch for guys desperate to salvage their baseball careers.
Tonight we've got a hockey player who gets injured, and is desparate to get back in the game - and when he fails, he transitions to figure-skating, still desparate to get a medal of some kind. And the figure skater is equally desparate for a medal, and having been through countless partners, she is forced to partner with a man she does not respect in order to be part of a prominent skating pair and have a shot at the gold.
What is it about desperation that fuels these athletes? Or is that just a shortcut to portray an underdog to the audience, since we all want to see the little guy win, or at least be competitive. We identify with the underdog, the unlikely or incompetent hero who just needs a little bit of an edge to have a shot at winning, because we like to think of ourselves in the same position, even though we're probably completely out of shape, and the closest we'll come to the Olympics is watching them on TV.
You just wouldn't want to watch a movie about a superior athlete who hit the genetic jackpot and doesn't have to train very hard, or a team that buys up so many superstars that winning the championship is practically an afterthought - where's the drama in that? So every sports movie has to be an underdog story in some way, or show the central figure overcoming some kind of physical, mental or cultural adversity. "We Are Marshall", "Rudy", "Chariots of Fire", "Cool Runnings", "The Scout", "Days of Thunder", "Bad News Bears", "Kingpin", "The Hurricane", "Million Dollar Baby" - I can go on and on...
I'm sure there must be some exceptions, but I kind of feel like I've cracked the code. Overcoming adversity or physical limitations goes hand-in-hand with winning, according to the language of film.
(A film that showed someone who was merely good at their sport, and won by just plain being "better" would probably feel like half of a film...) And "The Cutting Edge" is a prime example. If these seemingly mismatched atheletes can't find a way to work together, then they can't succeed. And it's only when their personal lives get straightened out, and they finally admit the attraction between them, that they are able to perform at their personal best on the ice.
Which, in addition to feeling a little contrived, also seems like something of an over-simplification. I think it's safe to assume that there are plenty of athletes playing professional sports who also have fairly screwed-up personal lives. How many people have to take the field each weekend (any sport, pick one...) who are having marital troubles, or are cheating on their spouses, or are just plain sleeping around? As seen at the start of this film, the Olympics is a chance for people from all different countries to compete, and have casual sex with each other afterwards. And if I needed to list every pro player with complicated relationships, well, I don't have that kind of room.
But let's take one prominent example, Tiger Woods. His adulterous affairs came to light in 2009, and once his wife finished beating his car with a golf club, he took a break from golf, and people are still waiting for him to return to form. So perhaps there is some connection between a happy personal life and a successful sporting career. But what if he was playing at the top of his game WHILE he was having all those affairs - what does that signify?
NITPICK POINT: If Kate was such a great skater, then why did she need a partner at all? Why wasn't she competing as a female solo skater? I guess they kind of addressed this point late in the film, but still...
NITPICK POINT #2: If Doug had a medical injury that prevented him from playing hockey, specifically his vision, why didn't this injury also affect his performance as a figure skater? Surely having a blind spot while skating was a potential problem in the new sport, too, right?
Also starring Moira Kelly (last seen in "Billy Bathgate"), Roy Dotrice (last seen in "The Scarlet Letter"), Terry O'Quinn (last seen in "The Rocketeer"), Dwier Brown, Chris Benson.
RATING: 5 out of 10 tequila shots
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