Every few years we need a good dance movie, and this is it!

Jessica-65

I really think this is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I'm a movie buff. Besides the romance and the satisfying reconciliation between father and son, the movie's basic message is just inspiring (A life lived in fear is a life half-lived!)  The dancing is wonderful and should really be seen on the big screen for best effect. The only trouble, as one reviewer wrote, is that Paul Mercurio only has one solo dance number. He is an excellent dancer, giving a smouldering, very sexy performance, and Tara Morice is terrific as the "ugly duckling" who is still willing to stand up for herself and her dreams.  The scene where she nervously suggests that she, a nobody at his parents' dance studio, should team up with the golden boy, is a great piece of acting.  When I first saw this movie, I found the comedy sections annoying, and felt that they interfered with the story and the romance, but they have grown on me over the years.  This is a great sendup of the ballroom-dancing world without denying the ultimate power of dance.  There are several ways you can tell that this is not a Hollywood movie: in the beginning Fran(Morice) actually looks convincingly ordinary, and even has *acne*!  The only disappointing part is when she takes off her glasses halfway through the movie, in the old Hollywood tradition, and never puts them on again!  Why is it that movie characters never ever seem to wear glasses out of necessity, and couldn't possibly be considered attractive while wearing them? Fran's family's little convenience store right under the highway overpass and next to the railway tracks is convincingly shown. Armonia Benedito is real and terrific as Fran's grandmother, and in a Hollywood movie you would never find a woman her age commenting appreciatively on the body of a man young enough to be her grandson! Pat Thompson and especially Barry Otto do a good job as Scott's (Mercurio's) parents.  (I heard that Thompson was sick with cancer during the filming of this movie and sadly died soon afterwards, but it certainly doesn't show in her appearance.)  The two kids who play Scott's sister and her partner also do a nice job.  Peter Whitford as Scott's dance coach plays a man who despite his ambitions is genuinely fond of his pupil. The only one who is not really believable is Antonio Vargas as Fran's immigrant father.  A dancer so good would be out there performing or teaching in his own right, despite language limitations, not barely making ends meet on the wrong side of town! In fact, one of the things I like best about this movie is that there is no completely unsympathetic character in the whole thing.  In the end, everyone pitches in to give Scott and Fran their big chance, even his ex-partner who can't for the life of her understand what he is trying to do. In the last scene, everyone has a dancing partner, and even the arch-villain of the piece has somebody to pick him up and dust him off, in a satisfying but very un-Hollywood way.

score /10

Jessica-65 13 April 2002

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0313631/