Shall We Dance (Romance)
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 21/01/2005
Director: Peter Chelsom
Cast: Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci

By Mark Pass Translated by Camille Lu

Richard Gere plays John Clark, not an unhappy man, in "Shall We Dance?" He loves his wife and daughter, enjoys his job as a lawyer and, when his wife gets that funny look in her eye and asks him if everything is okay, he says sure, of course, everything is fine. But there is something missing. One night as he is returning home on the L train, he notices a woman standing alone in the window of Miss Mitzi's Dance Studio. There is something intriguing about her, most noticeably her figure. A few days later, he gets off the train, walks into the studio and signs up for classes in ballroom dancing.

"Shall We Dance?" is a reasonably close remake of "Dansu Wo Shimasho Ka" (aka "Shall We Dansu?"), a 1996 Japanese film that set box-office records at home and won audiences around the world. This is not a cutting-edge movie. The characters are broad, what happens is predictable and, of course, everything ends up in a big ballroom dancing competition. And (are you ready for this?) at the crucial moment, we get the obligatory scene where the loved one arrives in the audience, sees what is happening and understands all. Conventional as it may be, "Shall We Dance?" offers some delights. The fact that Paulina is uninterested in romance with John comes as sort of a relief, freeing the story to be about something other than the possibilty of them getting naked. It can be about how John feels about his life, about why it might be useful for a middle-aged lawyer to jump the rails and take up ballroom dance. And about the gallery of supporting characters, who get enough screen time to become engaging.

Not a bad mix of humurous characters and personal growth to make this film an enjoyable 90 minutes. And, if you like musical movies and are longing for return to the throw back dance films of yesteryear, then this is even more a flick for you.