Three Stars

Figure skating in some ways is not unlike professional wrestling. Both are steeped in high drama, colorful artifice and outcomes that can be as incomprehensible as they are political.

And somewhere underneath all the glitz and bombast there are athletes trying to live a dream.

Or a nightmare, as in the case of two figure skaters in the new comedy, "Blades of Glory."

One skater, Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder), is a child prodigy, having been adopted by a wealthy promoter when Jimmy was a child doing figure eights and triple axles on a frozen pond outside his orphanage.

As he developed and matured, Jimmy became known for his fawn-like grace and genteel (i.e., effeminate) skating routines.

If Jimmy is the skating world's Id, then Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) is surely its ego. Big and boisterous, Chazz brings a lumbering machismo to the ice of competition, chatting up his female fans about his sexual prowess as he rides roughshod over his competition with a loud and raucous rock score serving as the soundtrack to his routines.

Of course, Jimmy and Chazz loathe each other. Matters aren't helped when the two tie for the gold medal at the skating world championships. Rather than peacefully tolerating each other, they destroy the awards presentation with an all-out brawl.

Their actions get the two of them banned from singles competition for life. It takes three years for a loopy fan to suggest that while they can't compete as singles, there is nothing in the rulebook that states they can't compete in the pairs division.

The problem is whether Chazz and Jimmy can co-exist with each other. Then there's that "gay issue," or as one observer puts it: "As if figure skating weren't gay enough already!"

If, however, MacElroy and Michaels were able to put aside their differences and fears of public perceptions, this pairing could be a force to reckon with. Or so fear the leading king and queen of pairs competitions, Fairchild and Stranz Van Waldenberg (Amy Poehler and Will Arnett), and they are more than willing to do anything to preserve their legacy.

"Blades of Glory" is farcical slapstick at its silliest, and yet, in its own ridiculous way, it's very amusing brain candy. There is a sense that directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon are attempting to satirize figure skating in a fashion similar to what Christopher Guest did to dog shows with "Best in Show."

The difference is that Guest skewed his subject with a keen eye and sharp wit. Speck and Gordon have neither.

What they do have, however, is a sense for broad farce. Their film is a good-natured prodding of figure skating that is neither mean-spirited nor condescending. Two great leads also help to aid and abet them in their efforts.

Farrell, like Jim Carrey and Robin Williams, has a tendency to overwhelm films with his over-the-top antics designed to show just how funny he is. Fortunately, he doesn't have to overextend himself with Chazz because Michaels is already a bloated character in a film that is also designed to be over-the-top.

Heder, with his toothy smile and intentionally androgynous physicality, provides the perfect counterbalance to Ferrell's scene chomping and Chazz's inflated sense of testosterone. The actors complement each other's talents as much as their skating alter-egos do.

"Blades of Glory" may not earn a gold medal for its entertainment value, but a silver one is definitely within the realm of possibility.