DVD Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Shall We Dance?

By Jeff Swindoll May 13, 2008, 11:04 GMT

Richard Gere has a sort’ve mid-life crisis and decides to take up his dancing shoes in this remake of a Japanese film. I was expecting to hate it but I got caught up in the swing and things and ended up having a good time.

John Clark (Richard Gere) seems to have it all. He’s got a high paying job as a lawyer, a good relationship with his wife Beverly (Susan Sarandon), but he still feels that something is missing. On his ride home on the train he sees a beautiful woman staring into space from a dancing school window. One day he decides to get off at the stop near the school and go up and check it out to see the lady. The school is run by the boozy Miss Mitzi (Anita Gillette) and the lady at the window is one of the instructors named Paulina (Jennifer Lopez). Paulina had a chance to break into the big time dancing competitions in England, but when she had a problem with the relationship with her dancer partner and they didn’t even make it to the finals. Because of her past, she’s lost her passion for dance and has been in hiding in Mitzi’s school. We think that John is on the verge of a midlife crisis and wants to hook up with Paulina, but he finds that he is developing a love of dance. The school also has the brash Bobbie (Lisa Ann Walter) and fellow students Chic (Bobby Cannavale) and Vern (Omar Benson Miller). John also discovers that one of his coworkers, Link (Stanley Tucci), is leading a double life as a dancer and doesn’t want the office to find out lest they think him gay. John’s passion for the dance grows and soon he’s training to compete in one of Chicago’s biggest dance competitions. I really wasn’t expecting to like this one. It had “chick flick” written all over it. The film is an American adaptation of a Japanese film, so that also had me worrying about the final product as sometimes we yanks tend to muck things up in hopes of attracting audience and make stupid changes. I was sure that Gere was suffering from a mid-life crisis and wanting to get into Lopez’s dancing shoes to rekindle his youth. That’s right, but it’s also wrong as he learns that he has it pretty good in life and comes to an understanding of that in his dance training. Characters that are also looking for various things as well surround him and it’s a joy to see them all find it during the course of the film. It’s not really a classic but it’s a fun film that is pretty infectious whether you be a chick or not. What’s somewhat amusing to me that in high-def I also kept focusing on the fact that it looks like Gere is wearing lipstick the whole time. Actors wear makeup in film, but perhaps in high-def it’s just more noticeable. What is also noticeable is that our actors had to go through some pretty intensive dancing training to get as good as they do. Shall We Dance is presented in 1080p anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director Peter Chelsom. The rest of the special features are presented in standard definition. First up is 17 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Chelsom. Next is the 24-minute “Behind the Scenes of Shall We Dance?” The 6-minute “Beginner’s Ballroom” shows what the cast had to go through to get up to snuff in their dancing shoes and the 4-minute “Music of Shall We Dance” goes into just that. Finally, there’s the 3-minute “Sway” music video by the Pussycat Dolls. Shall We Dance? Why yes we shall. I was expecting the worst and found that I really enjoyed waltzing around the dance floor with this one. I wouldn’t say that it was a classic but it was pretty good on its toes. Shall We Dance? [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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