Review - Blades of Glory

Figure skating is my favourite spectator sport. Every four years I am fixed in front of the Winter Olympics to see the triple-axel-double-salchow combinations and camel spins; during the Summer Olympics I have to watch gymnastics, a very distant second in my books for two reasons:

1. The big-chested, growth-stunted little girls are no match for the fluid grace of the skaters, and
2. The gymnasts’ costumes have few sequins.

The themed, sparkly creations that the skaters wear make for interesting viewing, but even I have to admit they are also ripe for some mickey-taking. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder duly oblige in Blades of Glory, souping up the camp glitz and bitchiness of the ‘sport’ to outstanding levels.

Heder plays Chazz Michael Michaels, the sex bomb of the figure skating world. Self-taught on the mean streets of the inner city, he is the arch-rival of Heder’s Jimmy MacElroy, the angelic and technically-perfect adopted son of a millionaire. After their intense rivalry causes both to be banned from Male Figure Skating for life, they fall on hard times. Realising that they can still compete in Pair Skating, they team up and enter the World Championships with, as they say, hilarious consequences.

This is a clever idea well-executed by directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck. The casting is great, with Ferrell making the most of his ‘magnetic sexuality’, and Heder the most of his Mormon innocence. The wonderful Will Arnett (Gob from Arrested Development) and his real life wife Amy Poehler (the perfect size for a throwing girl in pair skating) are hilarious as the Van Waldenbergs, the brother and sister nemeses of Michaels and MacElroy. The costumes are the real stars, though; tight in all the wrong places, exquisitely detailed and not far from the truth, they steal every scene.

Whilst the script has a lot of very funny ideas and many laugh out loud moments (as well as lots of great skating in-jokes), some flat scenes and thinness of plot mean that this will not become a comedy classic. Blades of Glory is a lot of fun whilst you’re watching it, but, like most of Will Ferrell’s comedies, not that much sticks in the memory. Still, 93 minutes of enjoyable silliness is not to be sneezed at, even if it is making fun of my beloved ice skating.