Guilty Pleasure: The Cutting Edge

Sep 11, 2006,  C. Robert Cargill
We all have them. The movies we love but refuse to admit we love. The movies we've watched more times than the movies we put on our favorite movie lists. The movies we keep cleverly hidden on our DVD shelves or patently refuse to stop watching when they're on cable. Our guilty pleasure movies. Don't lie. You have them too. Are you man enough to finally admit them, to come out of the movie closet clutching them with pride?

I am. So lets not mince words. I admit it. I love The Cutting Edge.

Directed by Detective Dave Starsky himself, Paul Michael Glaser (who also directed the 1987 action classic, The Running Man), this 1992 romantic sports comedy didn't exactly break box office records, but it's managed to win itself a surprising number of fans over the years, with three editions on DVD and a recent direct-to-video sequel/remake.

Not so much a film as it is a series of montages (seven in the first 45 minutes alone) strung together by a number of scenes telling an extremely simple and predictable story, The Cutting Edge is far from perfect. But it seems to know this and sets out instead to be a perfect example of both of its primary genres.

When a snotty-rich-girl Olympic ice-skating hopeful manages to scare off the last of her possible doubles partners, her father (Lost's Terry O'Quinn) hires an injured hockey player to take his place. What follows is both a classic sports training comedy (did I mention the montages) as well as a perfectly executed I-hate-you-I-hate-you-I-love you romantic comedy in which two bull headed skaters (Moira Kelly at her most beautiful and D.B. Sweeny in his most memorable role) bicker, fight and ultimately fall in love, all while trying to win a gold medal.

The result is a gleefully retarded, adorable film that blankets, couches and Sunday afternoons were practically invented for. Whether it's the sexual tension complete with more jealous glances than you can shake a stick at, the drunken-Moira-Kelly montage or just the simple comedy of "toe pick", this has no doubt at some point wormed its way into your heart. Personally, I'm a sucker for the whole Ice Queen melted by the Blue Collar Schlub angle. But what can I say? I'm a simple guy.

A movie that manages to win over both women and men equally, The Cutting Edge isn't just a guilty pleasure movie, it is the guilty pleasure movie. I own it. And no my wife didn't buy it. I'm man enough to admit that.

If somehow you've never seen this classic, you can check out the original trailer here.

C. Robert Cargill