Big holes...

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2008)

The opening credits of "Footloose" are a blast. The camera shoots the feet of several people doing different dance steps while a catchy music plays on the back. There's a chance you miss the credits because the movement of the feet may distract you; I think that's effective. I also think the first ten minutes of the film are effective: with the camera showing different views of what's clearly a small town and then taking us to church, where Reverend Moore (John Lithgow) gives a speech about how dancing corrupts the spirit of young children.
When the mass is over, we see the Reverend's beautiful daughter Ariel (Lori Singer) and her friends in a car racing tough guy Chuck's van (Jim Youngs), and unexpectedly Ariel gets out of the car through the window and stands in the middle of the two vehicles, knowing that a truck is coming from the other side. She doesn't die, but we understand the movie makes a statement: a girl is angry at her father because he is forbidding freedom among teenagers, and controls her all the time and doesn't let her live her life.
This is not an unfamiliar plot line, and although it's interesting, the movie provides something more interesting yet: Ren McCormack. Played by Kevin Bacon with the enough amount of cockiness and the necessary humanity, Ren is the new guy in this little town and he's about to bring trouble because he dances well and he wants everyone to dance. However, that's as interesting as it gets.
I won't tell you anything else about the plot because I believe everybody needs to experience a film in their own way and draw their own conclusions, but I have to tell you that my experience of "Footloose" was a disappointing one. Yes, there's good music and choreographies, and Kevin Bacon's work is risky and worthy of admiration (so is Chris Penn's as his best friend Willard), but there's absolutely nothing more.
As we wait for a new song to start playing, direct Herbet Ross struggles to keep our attention and cover the big holes in Dean Pitchford's script (there are moments where this is impossible and we're stuck with excessive minutes of background music). Take any conversation, any situation; only one is enough to see how narrow-minded Pitchford's writing is. And it's not narrow-minded because the characters inhabit a narrow-minded little town: it's narrow-minded in its nature, and it makes it impossible to us to connect with any of the characters or even remember their names (try to remember the name of Ren's mother by the end of the movie). Matsan asked me one time about the name of a guy that appears a lot in the film, but it seems more an accessory than a character.
After one day in school, Ren is driving the streets with a bunch of guys we don't care about. Okay, maybe we shouldn't, but the script's greatest fault is failing in the development of the one character we should at least relate to. If you think about an instant reason for Ren and his mother to be in a new town, you won't find it. And the movie provides reasons for this situation and many others, but it does it during the wrong moments. Every time an honest confession comes out of a character's mouth, we're not ready for it and we're not able to fully digest it.
I felt there was a problem of connection between each scene; that everything was either moving too fast or moving in an unexpected way, like the confession. Sometimes the unexpected is good: not here.
You seeSatine had feelings, she was trapped in a situation and we felt for her (this is "Moulin Rouge!"); Roxie Hart had aspirations, dreams (this is "Chicago"). Ren McCormack apparently has all this things too, but when the film gives him the possibility to stand by them, two times; the first one he's not convincing enough and the second one the movie skips the scene.
Of course you could say it's a musical and the story is less important and not to be taken seriously and other things, and that's why I put the examples above; but this is partly. The fact is, and this can be denied because it's something patent throughout the film, that the story of "Footloose" and the emotions of the characters are filled with seriousness: it's the filmmakers' intention for us to take it seriously.
And if that's not so, then I've seen another movie.