"Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School" is a slow paced, but sweetly charming and amusing film.
It is like a "Mad Hot Ballroom" for grown-ups, crossed with the period feel of "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" and some of the nostalgia wallowing of "Mrs. Henderson Presents".
Extended from a 1990 short film by co-writer/director Randall Miller, much is made that it takes place in 2005 but each of the three periods that are stories within stories has a different cinematographic tint, blue for the opening situation, yellow for 1962 (that are actually from the original film) and color for moving forward.
But the small matinée audience responded with warm chuckles to the humor and poignancy, especially for the flashbacks to twelve year olds that wonderfully captures boys and girls. (Recreating boys' junior war games was particularly effective).
While these are all non-dancing actors, with, unusually, no ringers in sight, the choreography is pretty lame and there's very little real dance step learning that goes on, and I don't even watch "Dancing with the Stars" though this should appeal to those fans. But this is not about the serious amateurs like in "Roseland". This much more about human behavior than dance steps as the Misses Hotchkiss seem to accidentally work a lot like "Nanny McPhee".
The large ensemble of recognizable actors is enjoying mostly playing against type, such as Robert Carlyle as an almost monosyllabic baker (like Nicholas Cage in "Moonstruck") compared to his usual motor mouth, even as the script manages to finesse his accent; Marisa Tomei as a shy wallflower (there's a leg here at issue rather than the arm in "Moonstruck"); Mary Steenburgen as a robotic emcee; Camryn Manheim in a vivid cameo; Donnie Wahlberg as an ineffectual Lord of the Dance (with a joke that "he's not even Irish" as several others also play against their usual ethnics). Some of the characters, though, are a bit one-note, such as an exaggeratedly lascivious Sonia Braga and a weepy widower. John Goodman does have the longest wounded monologue scene outside most opera and Shakespeare, but that happens frequently on "E.R." as well.
The now grown-up kid from the original film has a small role as Carlyle's co-worker, and it's not far-fetched that we could be seeing that in his imagination.
The opening rendition of "Over the Rainbow" (I couldn't catch if it was by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole or covered in his style) has been way over-used in too many films, but the arrangements of dance music and the musical period selections are fresh.
While the outline of the film is predictable, as each person faces their grief, guilt or other family issues and brightens through dancing and human contact, it is overall a lovely and heart warming film.
It is like a "Mad Hot Ballroom" for grown-ups, crossed with the period feel of "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" and some of the nostalgia wallowing of "Mrs. Henderson Presents".
Extended from a 1990 short film by co-writer/director Randall Miller, much is made that it takes place in 2005 but each of the three periods that are stories within stories has a different cinematographic tint, blue for the opening situation, yellow for 1962 (that are actually from the original film) and color for moving forward.
But the small matinée audience responded with warm chuckles to the humor and poignancy, especially for the flashbacks to twelve year olds that wonderfully captures boys and girls. (Recreating boys' junior war games was particularly effective).
While these are all non-dancing actors, with, unusually, no ringers in sight, the choreography is pretty lame and there's very little real dance step learning that goes on, and I don't even watch "Dancing with the Stars" though this should appeal to those fans. But this is not about the serious amateurs like in "Roseland". This much more about human behavior than dance steps as the Misses Hotchkiss seem to accidentally work a lot like "Nanny McPhee".
The large ensemble of recognizable actors is enjoying mostly playing against type, such as Robert Carlyle as an almost monosyllabic baker (like Nicholas Cage in "Moonstruck") compared to his usual motor mouth, even as the script manages to finesse his accent; Marisa Tomei as a shy wallflower (there's a leg here at issue rather than the arm in "Moonstruck"); Mary Steenburgen as a robotic emcee; Camryn Manheim in a vivid cameo; Donnie Wahlberg as an ineffectual Lord of the Dance (with a joke that "he's not even Irish" as several others also play against their usual ethnics). Some of the characters, though, are a bit one-note, such as an exaggeratedly lascivious Sonia Braga and a weepy widower. John Goodman does have the longest wounded monologue scene outside most opera and Shakespeare, but that happens frequently on "E.R." as well.
The now grown-up kid from the original film has a small role as Carlyle's co-worker, and it's not far-fetched that we could be seeing that in his imagination.
The opening rendition of "Over the Rainbow" (I couldn't catch if it was by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole or covered in his style) has been way over-used in too many films, but the arrangements of dance music and the musical period selections are fresh.
While the outline of the film is predictable, as each person faces their grief, guilt or other family issues and brightens through dancing and human contact, it is overall a lovely and heart warming film.