MARILYN HOTCHKISS BALLROOM DANCING & CHARM SCHOOL A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
***1/2 (out of ****)
All of a sudden, ballroom dancing is in vogue again.
Whether it's those underprivileged public school kids of Bensonhurst, Tribeca, and Washington Heights competing for that grand prize ("Mad Hot Ballroom") or Richard Gere sneaking away after work to merengue the night away with J-Lo ("Shall We Dance?") or Antonio Banderas portraying real-life dance instructor Pierre Dulaine (who started the New York City ballroom dance program documented in the afore-mentioned "'Ballroom") in "Take the Lead," there hasn't been this much swinging and (foxy) trotting on the silver screen since Fred and Ginger first flew down to Rio.
Well, maybe not since Scott and Fran tried out for the Australian Pan Pacific Championships in Baz Luhrmann's strictly wonderful 1992 film, "Strictly Ballroom," at least.
Now, literally hot on the heels of the Banderas film (which also opened this week), is Randall Miller's utterly charming "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School," a film whose kitschy title belies its underlying depth and old-school sensitivity. Ballroom forms the backdrop of the film but it's more about coping mechanisms and keeping promises than learning to rumba or to tango.
Director Miller has taken his 1990 short film, the curiously and similarly titled "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School," and opened it up, both generously and thematically. He has pulled together a remarkable cast (including Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Astin, Donnie Wahlberg, David Paymer, Adam Arkin, Sonia Braga, Miguel Sandoval, Danny DeVito, and John Goodman) all of whom are precisely that: remarkable. And the writer/director has utilized clips from his 34-minute version, employing them as flashbacks in the updated film, enhancing an already cleverly crafted--and slowly revelatory--structure.
The outline is serene: a shy and emotionally unstable baker (Carlyle), still grieving over the death of his wife, promises a stranger he will relay a message to the dying man's childhood sweetheart, one he'd agreed to meet on the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the new millennium at Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School. Marilyn herself has long since passed on but classes are still very much in session, lauded over by her daughter Marienne (Steenburgen) and attended by a colorful contingent of loners and hopefuls looking for companionship, or simply distraction.
As the film's economic tagline plainly suggests, "When destiny leads, love follows."
At once warm and compassionate, tender and touching, "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School" is a wonderful little film filled with big ideas and virtuoso performances (Carlyle, for one, has rarely been better). It's about finishing what you started, and starting over. It may well spend more time focusing on the heart-to- heart than it does coaching the cheek-to-cheek but nevertheless it's an experience that makes the after school special... and undeniably worthy of your attendance.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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