Say this about Will Ferrell: The man has an undeniable air of insanity about him, a commitment to character that seems hyper-normal, even by the outsize standards of comic acting.

Ferrell provides the main reason to see Blades of Glory, which he almost wills toward success. This time he portrays a dissolute figure skater who claims fame as a macho chick magnet named Chazz Michael Michaels.

Chazz, who also happens to be a sex addict, disdains his biggest competitor, a blond figure skater (Jon Heder) named Jimmy MacElroy, who's often mistaken for a girl.

Chazz and Jimmy get crosswise in an embarrassing Olympic podium incident that results in their being banned from their sport. Years later, after each has sunk to humiliating lows, a coach (Craig T. Nelson) unites them in hopes of making history: They'll be the first male pairs figure skaters and thus able to compete again. It's only their solo acts that have been banned.

As skaters, Ferrell and Heder do well. Heder, who initially appears in a peacock costume, strikes arty, balletic poses. Ferrell's skating seems to be be propelled by pure helpings of animalistic libido.

The movie quashes any notion that Jimmy might be gay, eventually giving Heder's character a love interest. Heder (of Napoleon Dynamite fame) definitely plays second fiddle here; he does better at feigning the moves of a skater than at getting beyond the confines of a one-note character.

Ferrell doesn't get beyond one note, either, but he sounds that note with such intensity and lack of regard for ego that he overcomes some of the drawbacks of a character who's not unlike those he's played before.

Here's an example. Clad only in a towel, Ferrell at one point describes the significance of Chazz's various tattoos. Although his torso looks doughy and unathletic, Ferrell musters as much bravado as possible, creating a mini-parody of the male capacity for overestimation.

Despite a clear desire to capture the competitive horrors of the world of figure skating correctly, the movie remains a hit-and-miss affair. Jokes either connect or slip away.

But the comedy improves as the movie progresses, and its laughs are augmented by the enjoyment we get from the more satirical bits: a couple of announcers who sound like all the folks who do figure skating, cameos from a few real skaters and scenes in which the men try to master their moves with a choreographer (Romany Malco).

I also liked the names of the brother-sister team that skates in opposition to our unlikely heroes, Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg.

Say that to yourself again: "Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg."

They're played by Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. It's the Van Waldenberg younger sister (Jenna Fischer) who falls for Heder's character.

All this builds toward a competition in which Chazz and Jimmy try a dangerous maneuver, the deadly Iron Lotus, which thus far has been performed (and with disastrous results) only in North Korea.

Because the movie tends to be built around a single joke - two unlikely partners in an unlikely pursuit - it doesn't have a whole lot of places to go. The moral here: Sustained preposterousness can take you only so far as you try to skate over thin comic ice.

Blades of Glory doesn't pack quite the wallop of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, but it offers enough rewards to keep Ferrell fans happy, even if they're not the kind of loyalists who went to see him stretch his acting muscles in Stranger Than Fiction.

As for me, I had a few laughs.

Blades of Glory

A look at the first male pairs figure-skating team.

• Grade: B-

• Rated: PG-13

• Running time: 94 minutes

Robert Denerstein is the film critic. Denersteinb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5424

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