Shall We Dance?
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 46 minutes
Directed by: Peter Chelsom
Starring:
Richard Gere - John Clark
Jennifer Lopez - Paulina
Susan Sarandon - Beverly Clark
Stanley Tucci - Link Patterson
Bobby Cannavale - Chic
Richard Jenkins - Devine
Nick Cannon - Scott
I went into Shall We Dance? expecting to hate the ever-loving crap out of it. I have nothing against dancing or people learning to dance. I have problems when the lead character is played by Richard Gere, an actor I have no problems with, but not a guy whose characters I'll sympathize with easily. Then you have Susan Sarandon and she can be fun, but she can also be Stepmom. And then there is Jennifer Lopez, who is easily my least favorite “actress” on the planet. People keep trying to cite 1998's Out of Sight as proof she can act. I'm not convinced and I think her celebrity overshadows her work. These three actors in a remake of a touching foreign film of the same name except this time I'm supposed to root for Richard-freaking-Gere because he's suffering from middle-upper-class/mid-life boredom, but he feels guilty because he thinks he should be happy with the life he already has. Eaten up by not being happy with a solid-paying job and a happy marriage with respectable children, he goes out for ballroom dance lessons but hides them from his wife (Sarandon) because he's so overcome with guilt that he'd rather his wife think he's having an affair than taking dance lessons.
And yet, Shall We Dance? comes out in the win column for me.
It's hard to really critique the movie because it's quite content being mediocre. It has no grand designs. It just wants to be a nice day out at the movies for people who want the most inoffensive fare possible; a way to relax with a little romance and a little laughter. And that's absolutely fine. Shall We Dance? certainly fits the bill in having some cute laughs, some nice character moments, especially from its supporting cast including The Station Agent's Bobby Cannavale as a dance classmate and Six Feet Under's Richard Jenkins as a private detective. And it has some sweet moments as well, especially between Sarandon and Gere. However, because the film is so carefree, it sometimes finds its way into the predictable (the dance instructor drinks because her students suck! Alcoholism is funny!) and the poorly-thought out (like the overly-zealous innuendo scenes between Gere and Lopez).
But one man pushes this film into the positive column. One man makes this film worth seeing. That man is Stanely Tucci. As Link Patterson, a friend of Gere's character, Tucci is a man whose story is far more interesting than the A-plot. Patterson is a man who is desperate to find his own confidence, is an excellent ballroom dancer, but still feels shame about himself and thus literally disguises himself with a bad wig, spray-on tan, and huge fake front-teeth. Walking wonderfully between hilarious and touching, Tucci's performance is a bright-light in a film that's simply content to fill two hours of your time.
Shall We Dance? isn't really a film worth going out of your way for. It works fine as a time-killer or maybe even as a nice date film, but there are other films that have danced this territory and have done it better. You'd be better off with those films instead.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
12.9.04