Only Skin Deep

Rating: 4/10 (10 December 2007)

Set in 1963, "Dirty Dancing" is the story of an ordinary American family--a doctor, his wife, and their two teenage daughters--on vacation at a ritzy lakeside resort. The drama begins when "Johnny," the resort's well-muscled dance instructor (played by a stunning Patrick Swayze), strides into the dining room where a bevy of waiters are setting tables, and is told by the hotel manager in no uncertain terms to keep his hands off the female guests. The rest of the film showcases Swayze's enormous sex appeal, both on the dance floor and off.
And that's why I gave this film such a low rating--it's only skin deep. "Baby," the younger daughter in the family, and a fresh-faced idealist, is entranced by Johnny's raw sensuality when she stumbles onto the hotel staff in a distant cabin one evening, bumping and grinding in an orgiastic dance party.
When Johnny's dance partner Penny realizes she is "knocked up" by one of the hotel waiters who dumps her when he knows she is pregnant, Baby borrows money from her father to help the dancer pay for an illegal abortion, which goes badly. Baby's father is then called in to attend the critically ill girl, and she pulls through, but the father, disgusted by the behavior which brought on the girl's condition, insists Baby sever all ties with her new friends.
Baby, however, begins lying to her parents--and after days of intense dance sessions with Johnny, starts sleeping with him. Wait--isn't that how Penny got into such deep trouble? The film never asks the hard questions. It's all about titillating youthful sexual appetites through lascivious dance, and then indulging those passions under the guise of "young love." This stuff is not just skin deep--it's downright deceptive. Couldn't Baby get pregnant after having sex with Johnny? We are not encouraged to go there. Instead, Baby and Johnny keep on dancing...
Watch this movie, and buy into it, at your own risk.