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Customer Reviews of On Edge

The film focuses on a number of characters who are competing in a local figure skating competition with an eye towards the Regional competition, with Zamboni Phil (Jason Alexander) functioning as a sort of Greek chorus or commentator. The three primary characters are Veda (Barret Swatek), J.C. Cain (A.J. Langer), and Wendy Wodinski (Marissa Jaret Winokur). The film focuses on their struggle to compete and what happens to them during competition.

The fully focused Veda, with her stage mother, Mildred (Wendie Malick), in tow, is the revered local front runner, though she harbors a secret desire to be something other than a future Olympian. J.C. Cain is the hard living, drug taking, beer swilling Tanya Harding wanna-be from the wrong side of the tracks. Wendy Wodinsky is a great skater but quite fat and, consequently, the catalyst for any number of gratuitous fat jokes, most of them unfunny. They are all in awe of the Regional competition favorite, who is the initial Regional winner, but who, in a very funny scene, immediately runs into a problem in retaining the title.

A.J. Langer is quite good in the role of the competition's bad girl. Newcomer Barret Swatek performs admirably in the role of Veda. Marissa Jaret Winokur does what she can with the hand she is dealt, which is to be the butt of those intolerable, heavy-handed, fat jokes. Wendy Malick, as Veda's stage mother, is, as always, quite funny. Jason Alexander, who is usually quite good in whatever role he undertakes, simply embarrasses himself in this film. Kathy Griffin, however, does a funny turn as an aging competitor, and John Glover is quite amusing as a former Russian figure skater turned trainer.

In the film, the sly allusion to another film, "Mildred Pierce", which I initially thought to be intriguing, is merely a red herring. The only commonality is that in both films the mother, Mildred, has a pie making business, and the daughter, Veda, is a haughty miss, who ends up a great disappointment to her mother. Apart from that, there is no more common ground, making the whole allusion pointless and somewhat puzzling.

For those who follow the world of figure skating, the film will have some interest, as the role of skating official, Ricky Medford, is played with relish by figure skating great, Scott Hamilton. Moreover, the film is punctuated with cameos by figure skating stars Kristi Yamaguchi, Peter Caruthers, Steve Cousins, Tai Babilonia, and Randy Gardner, as regional judges.

Still, even the interjection of these luminaries cannot pull this film out of the morass created by the leaden clunker of a script. So, rent, rather than buy, this film. Moreover, if one is not a figure skating aficionado, deduct one star from my rating. Should one wish to see a funny mockumentary, one should see "Drop Dead Gorgeous", which does for the beauty pageant world what this film fails to do for the figure skating world.

So so
Just like 'Best in Show' and 'Drop Dead Gorgeous', this is a mockumentory about the competitive world of figure skating. It wasn't a bad movie, but it didn't deliver the goods as well as it could have.

While Drop Dead Gorgeous had me laughing on the floor with tears in my eyes, On Edge only brought out a mild chuckle or two. There's the fat girl (she can do a triple! My God she can do a triple!), the girl being pushed too hard by her mother, the 'bad' girl, and a motley crew of skaters each wanting to win the coveted Golden Horn trophey at regionals.

Scott Hamilton was hilarious and possibly the high point of the movie. The dude from Seinfeld was OK as the Zamboni driver. All in all, I can give this movie an 'OK' but that's about it.

When a good idea goes bad....
In the style of "Best in Show" and "Waiting for Guffman," this movie is a behind the scene look at ladies figure skating. If you can get past the stupid fat jokes and bad writing the only highlight is Scott Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton is actually very funny and the movie would have been much more interesting if it was just a monologue of Scott Hamilton's character.