After four years, they discover a loophole in the suspension that states that
they can only be banned for the sport they had competed in (male solo
performer), but that they could still compete for other competitions,
including pairs skating. With no luck finding suitable female partners
willing to work with two banned and out-of-shape has-beens, they turn to each
other, forming the highly unusual same-sex pairs skating team. They plan
to go for the gold, the glory, and to restore their place in figure skating
history again, but first they must survive the grueling training and constant
sabotage from other figure skaters.
Certainly, a silly, immature comedy like Blades of Glory isn't going to
win any accolades of its own, but, if you're of a sort who likes silly,
immature comedies, it certainly will provide more than its share of smiles,
and a few belly laughs too. As often is the case with projects involving
"Saturday Night Live" performers, this does seem like a one-joke premise when
you first hear of it, and to some extent it is the stuff of skit comedy
stretched to feature length, but writers Jeff and Craig Cox, with rewrite
assistance from John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, manage to find enough angles
in these eccentric characters and funny premise to not lose steam throughout.
Of course, in a film that relies so heavily on the personalities of its
comedic leads, it certainly helps (in fact, it may be crucial) if you like
Will Ferrell's irreverent hamming and Jon Heder's lackadaisical, dorky nature.
If you do, you'll have a good time, and if not -- oh boy.
A good deal of the comedy comes through the uncomfortable visual of seeing two
men doing something so graceful and elegant together. Much is made of
some of their moves, which include stances and lifts that involve one man
grabbing or holding the other in the crotch area (face-to-crotch in one
particular move). It's crude, but by the time they occur, the zany (but
likeable) characters
and the stupid humor quotient sufficiently set the tone for these moments to
work in a hilarious fashion. These sorts of jokes might not be that funny in and of
themselves, but once the context is laid out, we laugh, not because it's funny
to see a man lift another man by the crotch, but because it's funny to see
these two men do it, and do it in the heat of a world competition.
Like many Ferrell gag-fests, there is a kitchen-sink approach to the comedy,
offering up plenty of smaller subplots when necessary, such as Michaels' sex
addiction, MacElroy's burgeoning romance with the good girl sibling of their
competition, and training in the potentially-lethal skate move known as the
"Iron Lotus". They even manage to work in a "celebrity stalker" angle,
with Nick Swardson (The Benchwarmers) playing a MacElroy-obsessed fan, that could have been
unnerving in any other film, but they even make him seem as likeable as all
the rest, even when he spouts such things as, "I'm still going to kill you
someday.")
However, unlike Ferrell's other comedies, the screenwriters
do a fine job in incorporating all of these side shows into the central plot,
never seeming like desperate angles to distract us from knowing there isn't
enough material for the subject matter. By the time the dynamic,
larger-than-life events occur in the final competition, we've already accepted
the fact that just about anything can happen. When the duo fly through
the air Peter Pan-style, it's all in keeping with the mindless exuberance of
the rest of this funny, featherbrained film.
