I miss it!

Rating: 4/10 (14 April 2006)

Now, I am a huge fan of dance movies. However, this movie for some reason doesn't do it for me.
I'm not someone who's going to say that it sucks, but i'm going to explain why It doesn't work for me.
Overall, a dance movie doesn't need a huge storyline. There are exceptions of course. Still, It doesn't matter if it's predictable, as long as you can see what you came for: The Dancing! If I like the dancing, then I like the movie, simple as that. (Flashdance is a wonderful example). Here's where the movie already failed for me. I'm not saying that the dancing is bad, as a matter of It's quite good! Not that it's revolutionary or something, but it's good. Then what is wrong with it?
"There is not enough dancing"
Really, Sarah (Julia Stiles) wants to become a professional ballet dancer. Now, I do ballet myself (I'm no pro thought) so it's really a sensitive something for me. If she loves it so much, then why the heck don't we ever get to see it? We only get these tiny glimpses of it. Now, don't get me wrong, what we see of it is good but we don't see enough of it.
Maybe this movie was supposed to be with very little ballet and they decided to make it complete with hip hop. Now, I have never ever done hip hop myself, so it's a lot less sensitive (and familiar) to me. But I even thought that there was still not enough of it. putting classic ballet in it would make a nice contrast with modern hip hop, it seems as if the movie makers thought that the world no longer likes ballet.
Now, what to do when there's not enough dancing: turn to the story which I thought was utterly ridiculous, very clichéd and extremely predictable. Instead of a nice dance sequences that will leave you dancing after wards we only get stupid dialog.
Maybe it had very deep characters like in Fame No, the characters where way too stereotyped: predictable from the beginning to the end. Even the good cast (yes, overall they're good) can't bring them out well.
What I especially miss, absolutely most of all (This is implied at all the latest dance movies, not just this one in particular) is the energy and the enthusiasm. What makes Footloose so good? The fact that it appeals trough great modern music enthusiastic actors and so on. Even the dark Flashdance had and I find it missing in today's dance movies which is a total shame.
Okay, I have been criticizing this movie all the time, just what exactly is good about this movie? The music is well done and fits everything well.The acting? I've stated it before: is overall quite well, nothing Oscar awarding but well done.
In the final end, I can't resist a dance movie. At some point I actually like it: But next time I watch it I will turn of the sound and read a book in the meantime. When i take a peak and see some dancing I"ll definitely watch.