From "Saturday Night Fever," "Dirty Dancing" and "Footloose" to the more recent "Save the Last Dance" and "Dance with Me," dancing movies have formed their own little sub-genre in the realm of American cinema. They are the illegitimate heirs to the legacy of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.
Peter Chelsom's "Shall We Dance?" starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon, is the latest dance flick to encourage getting up from uncomfortable theater chairs and cutting a rug in the aisle. It is based on a 1996 Japanese film of the same name.
"Shall We Dance?" falls short of that goal. It only succeeds in reemphasizing the clich?(c) of a movie based on a character's passion for the art of dance.
Gere plays John Clark, an important lawyer who has become bored with the monotonous ebb and flow of his middle-aged life. He's married to Beverly (Sarandon), who is devoted to her husband, but unable to answer John's mid-life crisis cry for help.
On his subway ride home, John spots Paulina (Lopez). The ghetto-booty-equipped woman is seen standing in the window of "Miss Mitzi's Dancing Studio."
John, taking a bold step in his unadventurous life, enters the dance studio to see the glamorous Paulina. Before he knows it, he's signed up for a weekly ballroom dancing class for beginners.
Fellow trainees Chic and Vern add some much-needed comic relief to the screen. Chic, an in-the-closet homosexual played by Bobby Cannavale (The Station Agent), and Vern, a recently engaged, oversized black man played by Omar Miller (8 Mile), stimulate some guilty laughs with silly gestures and antics on the dance floor.
Additionally, closet dance-master Link Peterson, played by Stanley Tucci, adorned with a long-haired wig, fake teeth and skin-tight pants, adjoins the trio of beginners and encourages their new found passions for dancing.
After weeks of mastering his footwork, John finds ballroom dancing to be a source of excitement in his lackluster life.
However, his wife Beverly notices the spring in his step and the more frequent smile on his face. This leads her to question his fidelity, and she hires a private detective, played by Richard Jenkins, to find the source of John's odd behavior.
Meanwhile, John and Paulina develop an intimate, but non-sexual, relationship centered on dancing as they each train for the climactic dance competition.
Lopez's role is minimized to a supporting character, which befits her acting and helps the movie. Gere plays the conventional "good-guy," as he has in every other movie in which he's starred.
As the dance competition approaches, Beverly has gotten to the bottom of John's new pastime and is uncertain as to whether she should uncover her findings. Instead, she shows up at the competition where all hell breaks loose, shaking the foundation of her marriage with John.
What follows are a series of scenes, some as odiferous as the worst Hollywood cheese. As a teary-eyed Gere professes his love for his wife, a plea comes to mind.
"Please don't be that movie."
It is that movie.
Some might say not to take it too seriously and that it makes a good date movie. This is not necessarily the case. Dates will be equally offended.
The Japanese version is a better film. Chelsom actually had to borrow this plot to make the film. If it has to be a dance movie tonight, rent "Billy Elliot," "Chicago" or any Bob Fosse movie.
"Shall We Dance?," aside from generating an occasional laugh, and maybe an "aww," does nothing more than upset the average moviegoer by stepping on toes with ineptitude and clich?(c).
