Film / The Cutting Edge

The Cutting Edge is a romantic comedy directed by Paul Michael Glaser and written by Tony Gilroy. It stars D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly.

Hockey player and college star Doug Dorsey (Sweeney) first meets spoiled pairs skater Kate Moseley (Kelly) at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games. The Games go badly for both of them — Doug suffers an injury on a dirty hit, killing his NHL hopes and leaving him without the money to attend school, and Kate's partner drops her during the performance, leaving her without a medal.

A couple years later, Kate is training for the 1992 Olympics but has still not found a partner. Her new coach tracks down Doug, who now works at a steel mine in Minnesota and plays small-town hockey, and convinces him to work with Kate. Doug agrees as he wants another shot at Olympic glory. Sparks fly as these two athletes, initially at odds, become a force to be reckoned with on the rink.

The film spawned a few sequels: The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold (2006), starring their daughter, Chasing the Dream (2008), and Fire and Ice (2010).

---

Tropes:

• Above the Influence: Doug refuses to sleep with Kate even though she's "literally throwing herself at him", as she puts it, due to her drunkenness and having broken up with her fiancé that very night.
• Accidental Misnaming: Doug can't remember his Calgary fling's name after their night together, rattling off several wrong answers (Rita, Lita, Anita) before she angrily tells him the correct one (Gita).
• Affectionate Nickname: Anton calls Kate the equivalent "Katya" and Doug "Douglas", in a variant.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Doug confesses his love to Kate as they're supposed to go on the ice at the Olympics, telling her that he needs her with an anguished expression.
• Artistic License – History: The Soviet Union broke up at the end of 1991, but is depicted as intact. Additionally, no US figure skating pair was in contention for any medal at the '92 Games (no US pair has medaled since 1988), yet Doug and Kate are portrayed as in intense competition with the Russian pair for the gold, while the other US team is likely to win a medal as well, and the US sent three pairs to Albertville instead of the two depicted.
• Artistic License – Physics: As discussed by the skaters who did the stunts, the Pamchenko is a fictional move whose physics are impossible, and getting the necessary shots to put it together still left several people injured. The winning move that the pair pulls off in the sequel is equally unachievable.
• Artistic License – Sports: A move like the Pamchenko would be illegal in competition (it's a Dangerous Forbidden Technique due to how close Kate's head would come to the ice). Kate even says so, though her coach contradicts her by saying "it's a gray area". Even a "gray area" move wouldn't be allowed in competition precisely because of how unclear it is. Also, spotlight lighting isn't used in competition, only gala exhibitions.
• Bandaged Face: Doug pranks Kate with this after she hits him in the face with a slapshot.
• The Bard on Board: An abrasive young woman named "Kate" and the unorthodox hard-living guy who's paid to partner and put up with her. They only get along after a lot of bickering and physical abuse. Basically The Taming of the Shrew on ice, with a slight modern update in that Doug also has to do some changing.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Doug and Kate don't get along and are always fighting at first...then this turns out to be a symptom of deeper attraction.
• Bilingual Bonus: Viewers who know a little German know that Doug's Calgary bedmate Gita is saying "No alarm" when she supposedly echoes him saying "Nine alarm". She's actually saying "Nein" (German for "no").
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Harvard-educated Hale, who works in Kate's father's London office is nebbishy and a bit of a Jerkass when he needles Doug about his lack of an education. Hockey player Doug is purely blue-collar, only went to college on a sports scholarship in order to play hockey—and it's seen as perfectly acceptable when he needles Hale about his lack of athletic prowess.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Doug is initially fine making comments implying how much he Really Gets Around, making sexually-charged remarks or insults to Kate, and has no problems with the degree of close physical contact pairs skating requires ("You want me to put my hands where?") but once he develops respect and feelings for her, he refuses to casually sleep with her while she's drunk for the first time in her life because he knows it's wrong for several reasons.
• Career-Ending Injury: Doug gets his head smashed so badly in Calgary his helmet comes off, leaving him with peripheral vision damage ("a blind side"), meaning he goes from being a top US college prospect to having no chance at playing in the NHL and someone who can't even manage as a college player, meaning he loses his scholarship and his chance at school, as well – which are all reasons he eventually decides to try figure skating, instead.
• The Charmer: Doug is handsome, affable, can pick up ladies at a glance, and was literally and figuratively skating through life until his Career-Ending Injury. None of this works on Kate, and he's forced to fall back on volleying insults while he's trying to adjust to figure skating.
  Doug: I was a god.
• Classical Music Is Boring: Doug's reaction when Kate tries to play some to choose for their programs, insisting that it doesn't suit them and that they should use something different to stand out from the other pairs. When Hale complains about the noise because he's trying to sleep, Doug sarcastically suggests that he listen to the classical piece to put him out. Sure enough, they end up choosing a much edgier piece of music and winning.
• Cock Fight: A vague version when Doug and Hale meet. Doug suggests that they play hockey sometime while Hale suggests that Doug join him at the office. Kate rolls her eyes and snaps, "I'm sorry, but naked male insecurity really leaves me cold", and stalks away.
• Crash-Into Hello: Doug bowls Kate over in a Calgary hallway as he's desperately rushing to his Olympic hockey game.
• Crisis Makes Perfect: The leads don't perfectly execute the Pamchenko, a risky but high-scoring move, right until they're on the Olympic ice.
• Dancing Is Serious Business: Figure skating, rather. Doug sneers at the idea of becoming one, but he soon learns that Kate's training routine is just as intense as his. Possibly even harder, as they have to pull off difficult athletic feats while looking delicate and graceful.
• Dainty Little Ballet Dancers: Played With. Kate Moseley is a talented figure skater, but difficult to work with. Her coach's search for a new partner leads her to none other than Doug Dorsey, a hockey player - and built like one. However, he has macho disdain for figure skating.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Kate has a good chunk of trust and self-esteem issues, not helped by her former coach having been a Jerkass. She has to overcome the former in order to finally be an effective pairs skater.
• Determinator: Kate works long days nonstop as an Olympic-level athlete hoping for gold, but Doug deserves special mention for going from "never having figure skated" to "Olympic competitor in different discipline" in two years, especially when his first Training Montage is mostly falling.
• Disposable Fiancé: Despite being a nice enough guy (although with less chemistry with Kate and less of an opportunity for her to work on herself), Hale's only purpose is to serve as a point of jealousy for Doug and eventually be the one who says out loud that Kate and Doug are attracted to each other. His engagement and relationship with Kate ends the same day.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Doug keeps drinking alone after the painful emotional fallout of turning Kate down. It proves to be a bad judgment call that leads to another one when Lorie Peckarovski shows up.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Despite being blasé about all things female and sexual (including Kate in a Modesty Towel), Doug is completely startled and shows himself to be a Fish out of Water when he gets this and appreciative comments from not only Lorie Peckarovski but also Brian Newman.
• Fish out of Water: Doug is intensely aware figure skating is not considered the most macho thing to do, lying to his family about his whereabouts while he's trying to learn and then pushing for simpler costumes and harder music. He finally ends up admitting to a roomful of people that figure skating is difficult, he and Kate are good at it, and he likes it.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Kate's reaction upon seeing Doug flirt with other girls at the New Year's Eve party and even more so after he casually sleeps with a rival skater after turning her down.
• In My Language, That Sounds Like...: Doug wakes up at the Calgary Games in a panic upon realizing that he overslept by four hours and is now late for his game and is completely confused as to why, as he thought the alarm was set for nine o'clock. His one-night stand is equally confused as to why he's upset, seeming to agree with him "Yes, you say nine alarm?" Doug doesn't realize it because he's too flustered, but viewers who know German (which Doug apparently doesn't) know that she's actually saying "Nein alarm". Nein is German for "no". Doug thought he was making it clear that he wanted the alarm to go off at nine, while she thought he was saying that he didn't want the alarm set at all (presumably she either didn't set it or turned it off after he did, thinking that he didn't want it).
• Jerkass Has a Point: Yes, Kate's an uber-bitch, but she has every right to be angry about Doug bumping into her so hard that he knocks her down and then not even apologizing nor asking if she's okay. One also can't help but agree with her when she calls Doug and Hale out on their attempts at one-upping each other.
• Lonely Rich Kid: It's one of a few things Kate won't acknowledge (other than a bit of wistfulness in her embarrassment at not getting to go to school). Spending your whole life training for the Olympics while having the money to do it all privately easily leads to this.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: Male ice hockey player (a more brute-force sport) Doug is initially at odds with, and later falls in love with, female figure skater (a sport more focused on aesthetics) Kate.
• No Ending: The film ends with Doug and Kate kissing after their triumphant performance, leaving it unclear if they won the gold medal (though the sequel states that they did).
• No Social Skills: Kate has a mannered veneer, but an extremely short temper and an endless well of insults under that... and it's implied that being an indulged only child with a Missing Mom, focusing exclusively on skating since her childhood and having had an uncaring Jerkass coach for years, and never having attended school with others all contributed to her never really developing these.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Doug and Hale's "friendly" conversation when they meet. Doug suggests that he and Hale play hockey sometime, likely needling him about his lack of athletic prowess, while Hale responds in kind with his suggestion that Doug join him at the office, taunting him about his lack of education. Kate calls them out on it and storms off.
• The Prima Donna: Kate is spoiled as well as harsh, sharp-tongued and overly demanding to cover her own insecurities, which drives away all potential skating partners prior to Doug.
• Recycled Script: The second movie is basically a rehash of the first, simply transferring the story to the 2006 Games in Turin.
• Refusing the Call: Doug is not thrilled about Anton's offer to switch to figure skating and tries to do this.
  Anton: Believe me, Gretzky, I am last person coming to look for you...
• Rule of Symbolism: Sleeping with a German athlete makes German-illiterate Doug late for his Olympic game against West Germany, and it's a German player who delivers his Career-Ending Injury. All the more so because West Germany was neither a political rival for the US like the Soviet Union or considered to be particularly prominent in hockey or figure skating, and neither West nor East is brought up again.
• Shout-Out: Kate needles Doug at one point, asking "You can read, can't you?" D.B. Sweeney played "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in Eight Men Out, another sports film — who was famously illiterate.
  Doug: Yes. Doug can read.
• Sleeps with Everyone but You: Kate is not pleased with Doug's "whoring" tendencies at any point, but she's horrified and humiliated when he sleeps with her ex-partner Brian's new skating partner Lorie Peckarovski right after turning her down.
• Snobs Vs Slobs: Rich, refined, and sophisticated Kate is a snob par excellence, to the point where she's openly embarrassed at not having gone to college. A good part of the film is her and slobbish working-class Doug trying to get along and not bring up each other's background or sling insults along these lines every two minutes.
• Spin-Offspring: The second film follows Kate and Doug's daughter Jackie.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Kate and Doug, although it only happens after they develop some trust with Kate becoming less uptight and Doug proving that he's serious and dedicated.

---