Shall We Dance Movie Review:


“Is that all there is?” asked Peggy Lee in one of her most popular songs. “If that’s all there is, then keep on dancing.” As someone who’s danced most of my life, I think that’s excellent advice. Despite the discipline involved, there’s great joy in this physical art form – and it gives one a sense of being in tune with the universal heartbeat. “Shall We Dance?” follows a bored middle-aged businessman as he surreptitiously discovers the happiness one kind of dancing – ballroom -- can bring to his mundane life.

Portraying John Clark, the businessman in question, Richard Gere stunned me with a performance of great sensitivity, humor and dance ability. His character changes from a painfully shy and clumsy student to a partner with all the right moves, and I believed Gere every step of the way. Drawn to Miss Mitzy’s Ballroom Dancing lessons by a beautiful teacher named Paulina (Jennifer Lopez), John enrolls without telling Beverly (Susan Sarandon), his busy wife. When Beverly smells perfume on his shirts, she hires a sympathetic private detective (Richard Jenkins) and his erudite assistant (Nick Cannon) to find out what’s going on.

It’s interesting to see what Sarandon can do with the role of a relatively normal person instead of the edgy types she so often plays. In this film, she’s a loving wife and mother who also holds down a full-time job. Sarandon’s character has no idea that her husband is unhappy. As with many of her performances, the eyes have it. Sarandon doesn’t do any of the big dance numbers, but she uses those enormous eyes to project all kinds of emotion. In the scene where Beverly first realizes her husband may be hiding something from her, Sarandon looks up at the camera with a surprised expression that’s worth the price of admission.

As the enigmatic Paulina, Lopez delivers her best performance since “Selena.” She succeeds in making us very curious about why her character is so distant and somber. “You look on the outside like I feel on the inside,” John tells her. Paulina seldom smiles, but when she does, the entire screen lights up. And when she dances – wow! Lopez’s long body lines, taut muscle tension and innate musicality combine to evoke memories of the great Cyd Charisse, whose gorgeous image briefly floats across the screen in a backdrop to one sequence.

Most of the humor in “Shall We Dance?” comes from the film’s colorful supporting cast. Stanley Tucci (“The Terminal”) is hilarious as a closet ballroom dancer; Lisa Ann Walter (from TV’s “Life’s Work”) had me in stitches with her Bette Midler-like comic flair; Bobby Cannavale (“The Station Agent”) and Omar Benson Miller (“8 Mile”), playing Gere’s dance classmates, made me smile every time they displayed their primitive approach to ballroom dancing.

Adapted from a popular Japanese movie, “Shall We Dance?” translates more successfully than I expected. The Japanese version is one of my favorite foreign language films, and I didn’t think it should be tampered with. Fortunately, director Peter Chelsom (“Hear My Song”) and screenwriter Audrey Wells (“Under the Tuscan Sun”) did a brilliant job of bringing the story to life in ways that make sense to American viewers, especially in terms of the need to rekindle passion in a relationship.

Audience members attending a Sneak Preview of this delightful movie applauded with enthusiasm as the end credits rolled, and I haven’t seen that happen in a long time. Many of them probably want to take ballroom dancing lessons now. I know I do!

Betty Jo Tucker

What was Miramax thinking when it decided to remake Masayuki Suo's 1997 gem? American studios are, quite simply, incapable of the subtlety and understatement that made the Japanese original such an unforgettable classic. And this remake has one of the most painfully obvious scripts in recent memory.

John Clark (Gere) works a dull job in Chicago and travels home by commuter train to his loving and intelligent wife (Sarandon) and kids (Hope and Sands). But something's missing. And he places his hopes on the mysterious dance instructor Paulina (Lopez), gazing out from her studio along the El track. John decides to take dancing lessons without telling his wife. She gets suspicious and hires a private detective (Jenkins). Important Life Lessons ensue.

Honestly, Gere and Lopez are talented enough to know by now that romantic comedy is not their forte (avoid also Autumn in New York and Maid in Manhattan). Everyone else gives it their all; the only ones who engage us are John's fellow dance students Cannavale, Miller and especially the always-marvellous Tucci. But by over-explaining every scene and constantly restating the themes, the script undermines anything the cast can add.

Meanwhile, Chelsom continues his transformation into an A-list hack. After the lovely Hear My Song and The Mighty, his directorial style been straightjacketed into anonymous Hollywood slickness. The film looks lush, but there's simply no flair at all. The dance sequences are sometimes beautiful, but they're badly framed and uninvolving, while the photogenic, soft-focussed cast never manages to convince us that they're a bunch of hopeful losers.

But this is only part of the problem in a film so deeply, achingly unconvincing that we just want to slap everyone on screen! Maybe the main mistake was sticking so closely to Suo's plotline while jettisoning all of his delicacy. Perhaps screenwriter Wells should have made it a sexier, more lusty romance. No, I think they should have just saved their millions and encouraged everyone to watch the masterful original on DVD--or even Baz Luhrmann's wonderful Strictly Ballroom. That would have saved us the agony of sitting through this mess.

Rich Cline

John Clark (Gere) has a perfect wife and family, a respected job and a comfortable lifestyle but he isn't happy. His kids are growing up and don't
need him any more, his job is becoming monotonous and due to work, he hardly ever sees his wife, John needs something in his life. Riding the train home every night, he sees a beautiful woman stood at the window of a ballroom
dance studio looking as unhappy as he feels. As the days pass he becomes more and more curious about her but when impulses take over he finds himself in the dance studio signing up for ballroom lessons.

Hollywood's relentless passion for remaking hit foreign movies continues as their ideas well carries on drying up but can 'Shall we Dance' get your feet
moving?

Based on the 1997 Japanese movie, Hollywood remake of the story of a man escaping his mundane office job takes that premise and adds a huge dollop of Tinseltown sentimentally. The film starts well, introducing you to a collection of characters that have come to ballroom dancing for their own personal reasons. We see them start their lessons with the obligatory falls, gaffs and questioning of each other's sexuality when two men have to dance together but as time passes they get better. This part of the film is filled with comedic elements and draws you into the characters and their reasons for taking the lessons but then the Hollywood sentiment hits.

The last half hour of the movie is cringe worthy. You will not believe the about of sugary sweetness that is dowsed all over you, to the point that it makes you feel quite ill. All the good work and character development is gone as soon as ballroom dance competition finishing and sentimentally takes
over. The fun is gone as the reasons for John's unhappiness are revealed and the inevitable happy ending is telegraphed as soon as he talks to his wife.

The performances from the cast are good however, for two thirds of the film that is. Richard Gere embraces his age by playing a father and having a wife that is actually the same age as him. As John Clark we see a man stifled by his own success and jobs both he and his wife have. As they are both
successful, they don't spend enough time together and some of the spark has gone. Gere plays this well, portraying the reality of the modern working
marriage very honestly, revealing the characters frustration and his longing for friendship and diversity in his life. Jennifer Lopez gives one of her
best performances since 'Out of Sight' as failed ballroom dancer Paulina. A gifted dancer in her own right, this is a role that doesn't require much
acting on her behave and she doesn't really have that much to do except dance and look beautiful. Could this be the kind of role she was meant to
play? Stanley Tucci is as good as ever as Link, the passionate dancer who was embarrassed about his dancing and his baldness. Susan Sarandon plays
John suspicious wife Beverly well, but she could have done with more screen time and character development and Richard Jenkins supplies the comic relief as private detective Devine, who is hired by Beverly to find out what John is up to.

'Shall we Dance' starts well but suffers from a dramatic fall at a pivotal moment. Sentimentally and sugary sweetness drown all the good work that has
gone before, completely ruining what was an nice movie up until then. By the end you will not care if Jennifer Lopez ever gets her confidence back to
step onto that competitive dance floor and head for the Mecca of ballroom dancing, Blackpool (I kid you not).

Star Rating = * *

Jamie Kelwick

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