The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream

Alexandra is a serious ice dancer whose partner is injured, and she cannot find a replacement. Her coach proposes Zack, who comes from hockey. Zack can skate but knows nothing about the discipline, has no patience for the rules and argues with everything she says. The season is approaching. The subject is not sport but two disciplines despising each other. The hockey player does not consider ice dance serious, the dancer considers hockey brutish; the film first confirms these prejudices and then dismantles them one by one. The form is the series' known template: training sequences, arguments, competition and a final routine. The ice is shot with real skaters in long takes; the actors appear in close-ups and doubles do the moves, and the joins are often visible. It is the third instalment of the 1992 film and was made for television. The first film established the hockey player and dancer pairing; this one repeats the idea with a new cast and even names the lift from the original. The series uses its own inheritance openly. Stuart Gillard directs. Matt Lanter and Francia Raísa lead, with Sarah Gadon in the cast. Who it is for: viewers following the series and anyone who likes ice sports. Who it is not for: anyone after originality; the film repeats the first one's structure almost exactly.