Fair dance movie...

Rating: 4/10 (2 July 2010)

1st watched 7/1/2010 -- 4 out of 10 (Dir-Herbert Ross): Fair dance movie with good music and dancing but underdeveloped storyline(that should have been set in the 1950's) that ruins the whole experience. The movie is about a smalltown that abolishes dancing and a few other things after an accident on a local bridge that killed a few kids including the preacher's son. A young pup, played by Kevin Bacon(in a good role for him, actually) arrives in town from Chicago wanting to change things. The preacher is played by John Lithgow(who does a decent job), and has personal reasons for keeping the law in place. His daughter, played by Lori Singer, in some ways is trying to go against her father but in other ways is trying to reach out to him, but can't seem to since the incident. Singer is not very convincing in her role and she just doesn't match up to the other actors as far as her skill level and this weakens the film. The main problem, though, is a script that's inconsistent. The first half of the movie plays like a few MTV moments and outside of the music it's trying to introduce the distance between the characters. The last half tries to bring the characters back together and has more drama, but each half doesn't do a very good job -- although the 2nd half is better. Sure, there's a nice danceable happy ending but you really don't get a feeling like real changes were made. For a summer kids flick this did well, but for the discerning adult this movie doesn't have much appeal. Buy the soundtrack -- enjoy the music and dance to it, but don't worry with the film.