Discovering one's 'inner dancer'
Discovering one's 'inner dancer'
Posted 02:13am (Mla time) Jan 30, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A13 of the January 30, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
BAGETS may have the kilig movies of Piolo and Bea, Richard and Angel for spice or consolation this Valentine season, but more ahh... mature couples will find their thrills in "Shall We Dance," which opens in theaters next week.
Based on the 1996 Japanese original of the same title, "Shall We Dance" transplants the repressed Tokyo salary man in the first movie to Chicago, where he has become a middle-aged lawyer. John Clark (Richard Gere) finds himself asking-much like his clients who have him sum up their lives for them in wills-"Is that all there is?"
By all conventional standards, Clark is a man who has nothing left to wish for. His wife Bev (Susan Sarandon) puts her finger on it when she tells him that "There is nothing in a box that you want or that I can give you." He has a successful career, a smart and lovely wife, and two loving children. But there is a part of him that hungers for more.
One evening, while aboard a commuter train, Clark happens to look up and catches a glimpse of a beautiful young woman (Jennifer Lopez) looking pensively out of the window of a dance studio. Intrigued by her air of sadness and longing, he decides to satisfy his curiosity.
Entirely out of character, and out of the loop of familiar conventionality, Clark finds himself enrolling for a beginner's dance class at Miss Mitzi's Dance Studio, sharing the dance floor with two losers, and with Bobbie, a manic ballroom wannabe whom her studio classmates have dubbed "The Bobbienator." Clark also discovers that another lawyer in his firm (Stanley Tucci), who styles himself a jock at work, is in reality a dance fanatic who disguises his identity on the dance floor for fear of ridicule. As he puts it: "You don't know how much pressure there is on a straight man who loves to dance."
* * *
BUT of all the people he discovers in his new world of dance, it is Paulina, the woman whose soulful gaze out of the window first drew him in, who most intrigues Clark. It turns out that she is an accomplished ballroom dancer, who was good enough to make it to the finals of the world's top ballroom competition, only to return not just defeated but vanquished in spirit.
When Paulina rebuffs Clark's invitation for dinner, suggesting that he frequents the dance studio only to get closer to her, the lawyer initially considers giving up his new-found vocation. But he realizes that dancing has captured his heart and ignited his passion, that his visits to the dance studio are no longer about Paulina, but rather about answering a deeper need.
However, Clark's budding romance with dance leaves his wife feeling left out. Worried about her husband's frequent late nights and changed personality, and wondering if he is having an affair, Bev hires a private detective to look into his nocturnal activities. When the detective invites her to watch Clark compete in the finals of Chicago's foremost dance competition, Bev feels for the first time shut out of her husband's life, that he not only kept a secret from her, but deliberately excluded her from something that had apparently become a vital part of his life.
Can John Clark, upright citizen and happy family man, co-exist with John Clark the whiz at waltz?
* * *
TRYING to explain to the private detective why people get married, Bev Clark says it's because a person needs "a witness to one's life." Everyone, save for the rare and fortunate few, tread through life in anonymity, she says. And the reason a man or a woman gets married is to be assured that at least one other person gets to witness your life, gets to know you in intimate detail and can testify that your existence held some meaning.
When Bev confronts John about why he kept his life in the dance studio a secret, he confesses that he was afraid of shattering the image of happiness and security that they had built around their marriage. Indeed, "old marrieds" know of this hunger-this search for personal meaning and fulfillment even as one strives to meet the demands of career, family, society.
"Shall We Dance" may not have the usual elements of cinematic romance. The male lead does not waltz into the sunset with his romantic interest. But it does affirm the value of love-for oneself and one's unspoken dreams, for the people who give meaning to one's life, and for dance and the wonderful exhilaration and freedom it allows.
There have been many movies made of and about dance-there's even a tribute to Cyd Charisse in one scene of "Shall We Dance." But this movie tells the story not only about how one life is transformed by the power of dance. It also tells of how a family is created in the dingy confines of the dance studio, and how many individuals are allowed-like butterflies bursting out of their cocoons-to become their real selves on the dance floor.
* * *
QUITE obviously, this movie would not have worked had it not been Richard Gere playing the lead. As the lawyer discovering his inner dancer, Gere lends just the right touch of vulnerability and verve to John Clark. He is quite a sight in a tuxedo, affirming that gray hair and laugh lines only add to a man's allure. Jennifer Lopez has never looked more sultry, and never has a movie showed off her bootyliciousness in quite so compelling a manner as in "Shall We Dance." I bet young men (and older women) will be re-playing J Lo's tango with Gere endless times once the DVD goes on the market.
Susan Sarandon, the production notes claim, was chosen to play the role of Bev for her "distinct embodiment of feminine intelligence." Wives watching this movie will find themselves rooting for her character; for if husbands could harbor inner Astaires, wives, too can testify there's more than a little J Lo in them.
Posted 02:13am (Mla time) Jan 30, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A13 of the January 30, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
BAGETS may have the kilig movies of Piolo and Bea, Richard and Angel for spice or consolation this Valentine season, but more ahh... mature couples will find their thrills in "Shall We Dance," which opens in theaters next week.
Based on the 1996 Japanese original of the same title, "Shall We Dance" transplants the repressed Tokyo salary man in the first movie to Chicago, where he has become a middle-aged lawyer. John Clark (Richard Gere) finds himself asking-much like his clients who have him sum up their lives for them in wills-"Is that all there is?"
By all conventional standards, Clark is a man who has nothing left to wish for. His wife Bev (Susan Sarandon) puts her finger on it when she tells him that "There is nothing in a box that you want or that I can give you." He has a successful career, a smart and lovely wife, and two loving children. But there is a part of him that hungers for more.
One evening, while aboard a commuter train, Clark happens to look up and catches a glimpse of a beautiful young woman (Jennifer Lopez) looking pensively out of the window of a dance studio. Intrigued by her air of sadness and longing, he decides to satisfy his curiosity.
Entirely out of character, and out of the loop of familiar conventionality, Clark finds himself enrolling for a beginner's dance class at Miss Mitzi's Dance Studio, sharing the dance floor with two losers, and with Bobbie, a manic ballroom wannabe whom her studio classmates have dubbed "The Bobbienator." Clark also discovers that another lawyer in his firm (Stanley Tucci), who styles himself a jock at work, is in reality a dance fanatic who disguises his identity on the dance floor for fear of ridicule. As he puts it: "You don't know how much pressure there is on a straight man who loves to dance."
* * *
BUT of all the people he discovers in his new world of dance, it is Paulina, the woman whose soulful gaze out of the window first drew him in, who most intrigues Clark. It turns out that she is an accomplished ballroom dancer, who was good enough to make it to the finals of the world's top ballroom competition, only to return not just defeated but vanquished in spirit.
When Paulina rebuffs Clark's invitation for dinner, suggesting that he frequents the dance studio only to get closer to her, the lawyer initially considers giving up his new-found vocation. But he realizes that dancing has captured his heart and ignited his passion, that his visits to the dance studio are no longer about Paulina, but rather about answering a deeper need.
However, Clark's budding romance with dance leaves his wife feeling left out. Worried about her husband's frequent late nights and changed personality, and wondering if he is having an affair, Bev hires a private detective to look into his nocturnal activities. When the detective invites her to watch Clark compete in the finals of Chicago's foremost dance competition, Bev feels for the first time shut out of her husband's life, that he not only kept a secret from her, but deliberately excluded her from something that had apparently become a vital part of his life.
Can John Clark, upright citizen and happy family man, co-exist with John Clark the whiz at waltz?
* * *
TRYING to explain to the private detective why people get married, Bev Clark says it's because a person needs "a witness to one's life." Everyone, save for the rare and fortunate few, tread through life in anonymity, she says. And the reason a man or a woman gets married is to be assured that at least one other person gets to witness your life, gets to know you in intimate detail and can testify that your existence held some meaning.
When Bev confronts John about why he kept his life in the dance studio a secret, he confesses that he was afraid of shattering the image of happiness and security that they had built around their marriage. Indeed, "old marrieds" know of this hunger-this search for personal meaning and fulfillment even as one strives to meet the demands of career, family, society.
"Shall We Dance" may not have the usual elements of cinematic romance. The male lead does not waltz into the sunset with his romantic interest. But it does affirm the value of love-for oneself and one's unspoken dreams, for the people who give meaning to one's life, and for dance and the wonderful exhilaration and freedom it allows.
There have been many movies made of and about dance-there's even a tribute to Cyd Charisse in one scene of "Shall We Dance." But this movie tells the story not only about how one life is transformed by the power of dance. It also tells of how a family is created in the dingy confines of the dance studio, and how many individuals are allowed-like butterflies bursting out of their cocoons-to become their real selves on the dance floor.
* * *
QUITE obviously, this movie would not have worked had it not been Richard Gere playing the lead. As the lawyer discovering his inner dancer, Gere lends just the right touch of vulnerability and verve to John Clark. He is quite a sight in a tuxedo, affirming that gray hair and laugh lines only add to a man's allure. Jennifer Lopez has never looked more sultry, and never has a movie showed off her bootyliciousness in quite so compelling a manner as in "Shall We Dance." I bet young men (and older women) will be re-playing J Lo's tango with Gere endless times once the DVD goes on the market.
Susan Sarandon, the production notes claim, was chosen to play the role of Bev for her "distinct embodiment of feminine intelligence." Wives watching this movie will find themselves rooting for her character; for if husbands could harbor inner Astaires, wives, too can testify there's more than a little J Lo in them.
posted by Dante at 9:24 PM
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