90's Watch: The Cutting Edge (1992)

Watched:  06/27/2025

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Paul Michael Glaser

This is the second time I saw this movie, the first time being in the late 90's.

I mentioned I was going to watch The Cutting Edge (1992) to some dudes my age (heyo, Marshall and Paul) and we all kind of said what I think is true:  this movie wasn't really aimed at us, we all saw it, and thought that if you're going to make this movie, this is pretty good.

At least that was my memory of it before watching it again.  

And, yeah, it's still true.  

I mean, it's got some very 90's vibes, but because of the era, it has a bit of that "we're adults and so we're going to act like (young) adults, not tall teenagers written for a Disney daytime show".  

The basic plot is that D.B. Sweeney plays a hockey player who suffers an injury that will keep him from playing professionally.  He's struggling in life when he's approached by the coach to be the partner for a difficult pairs skater (Moira Kelly!).  Who can't keep a pairs partner.  Because she's a raging B.

It follows the enemies-to-lovers thing that people seem to love (see: Jane Austen) which is not a spoiler because the poster had Sweeney and Kelley looking like they might make out right there.

The cast is small, but doesn't need to be huge.  Terry O'Quinn plays Kelly's rich dad.  

There's a pretty good conclusion to the film with characters having actual moments of self-actualization and whatnot, even if it's all swaddled in 90's sports-movie cheese.

I dunno.  It's fine!  I even kind of like it.  If I were on a date in the 1990's, I would take Jamie to it and try not to say too much about Moira Kelly being dreamy.

Since I saw the movie the first time, I've watched countless hours of ice skating thanks to Jamie's abiding interest in the sport - and now I know that very little of what happens in this movie is how skating actually works.  But enough works that it's not utterly broken.  

My only other real note is that a girl from my high school class that I never spoke to or shared space with married D.B. Sweeney and was with him until what Google tells me was 2023.  I kinda vaguely/sorta remember her when I look at her picture.  She would not know me at all.  It all works out.