Just like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, you can practically hear The Cutting Edge’s Ice Queen squall, “I’m m-e-e-e-elting.” And it’s nearly as satisfying. Both those bitches deserved to be taken out. Kelly plays Kate Moseley, a spoiled, rich, vicious-tongued, ice-skating beauty with a solid shot at an Olympic gold medal… if only she can find a male partner who can keep pace with her. But she finds fault with every one who tries. Then Doug Dorsey (Sweeney) comes along, a blindsided, ex-hockey player unable to make his peace with early retirement. He, too, could have been an Olympic medalist, were it not for that nasty blow to the head. They’re a match made in a heaven born when hell froze over and left these two gliding serendipitously over the ice. They spar, they scratch, they tease, they meld. The storyline’s a classic, the type Hollywood used to do so well back when it paired couples like Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable or Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in romantic comedies that essentially were 90 minutes of extended foreplay. The Cutting Edge’s Kate and Doug are, at heart, not especially likable people. What makes these characters work are the wonderful performances by Kelly and Sweeney who hit all the right notes and do so with great style. They are aided by a solid script that maintains a believable realism and never tries to be more or less than what it is. The skating sequences are also well-thought out and fun to watch. The movie loses momentum at times with directionless subplots about Kate and her boring fiance, Doug and his family back home who think that taking up figure skating is tantamount to turning a gay blade and the manipulations of Kate’s father whose vicarious attachments almost put a permanent hex on her life. Certainly, The Cutting Edge is a well-timed vehicle for those who couldn’t get enough of the Winter Olympics on TV, but it pushes past simple opportunism to deliver a backstage story that works in any season.
This article appears in April 10 • 1992 (Cover).
