So I'm typing away in the newsroom of the Daily News when one of our film critics, Bob Strauss, walks by. I tell him that I will return his DVD of "Children of Men" to him next week then say, "I saw 'Blade of Glory' last night!"
Bob, without skipping a beat, says: "And I thought '300' was the gayest movie this year."
Ha! I actually think the new Will Ferrell comedy about two rival male skating champions who end up teaming for the pairs competition could have and should have been even more gay.
Although pairs skating is usually male-female, Chazz Michael Michaels (Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) are banned from individual skating for punching each other out during the medal ceremony at the World Championships. They spend three long years doing humiliating jobs before they attempt to put aside their differences and team-up in an effort to exploit a loophole in their suspension. There is the usual gay panic stuff when they are training and have to lift each other in what resemble sexual positions but they get over that in time and end up a formidable team that challenges the reigning world champions and brother and sister Stranz (Will Arnett) and Fairchild (Amy Poehler).
Ferrell's character is a macho sex-addict who clearly loves the ladies but Heder's character of Jimmy set off my gaydar from, I dunno, the opening FRAME. So why not have him be gay and fall in love with the brother of Stranz and Fairchild instead of their sister (played by Jenna Fischer)? The only gay character is Jimmy's creepy stalker who tells him at one point: "I'm gonna cut your skin off and wear it to my birthday party."
Oh my. So my verdict? I laughed a lot at the silly stuff and the physical pratfalls and I thought Ferrell was a riot. As a gay man and someone who follows the movie indiustry closely, I would have liked to have seen a positive gay portrayal in a movie. If done well, as it was in Ferrell's "Talladega Nights," it can expose mainstream audiences all the more to all different kinds of gay characters...not just stalkers!
"Blades," directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, hits theaters March 30.