Limiting Tracks

Rating: Null/10 (20 October 2004)

Spoilers herein.
As films unfold while we watch them, there's a curious balance between the world of the film and the world of the viewer. Usually the world of the film bulges into our world, the 'real' world. But sometimes it is the other way around. I haven't yet seen the original, but I understand it exploits this notion, the notion of the viewer simply stepping off the fixed track of reality into a richer world of flowing expression.
It leverages the by now common device of dancing and trains, in addition to using the train as a metaphor for drudgery and routine. We know that the already mythical Baz Luhrmann went to great lengths to insert a train in 'Strictly Ballroom.' And we have the cinematic ally unique train sequence in 'Dancer in the Dark.'
I maintain that today, trains exist more in the cinematic world than the real world, at least for Americans, and one reason this remake fails is the lack of understanding how to employ its nature in the service of the story. It would have failed even if the disaster of Lopez had been rectified, and the many translations from Japanese repression to that of privileged lawyers was somehow made.
If you can get past the fact that this is as lifeless a remake as 'Tortilla Soup' (and for the same reasons), and overlook Lopez this script has one of the most interesting concepts in film marriage: marriage is about having a "witness" to your life. The original build this into their concept, the shifting of that line between who sees what to the stretch of the film seeing the viewer.
There's a piece of trivia here. Of all the worlds of dance, ballroom dancing - especially competitive dancing of the type that schools promote - is the least emotive, the most proscribed and predictable, even fluidly mechanical. Usually the ballroom dancing movie is about transcending those limits. Here, it is the opposite: Lopez's speech (itself mechanical) about dance making you truly alive is a bit ironic if you understand what the competition is all about.
Bette Midler can relax now. She's become a sort of female Elvis with a recognizable stereotype for actresses to merely copy.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.