So, who doesn't have some sort of mid-life crisis?

Rating: Null/10 (19 February 2005)

Richard Gere is John Clark, competent Chicago attorney, appears to specialize in drawing up wills for his clients. He is happily married to Beverly (Susan Sarandon), and has the "ideal" family, a teenage boy and a teenage girl. Every evening he takes the 'El' home and looks out the window, and if we could crawl into his head might hear him thinking, "Is this all there is?" One day he notices a dance studio out his train window, and he wonders. He sees beautiful Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) wistfully gazing out the window. One day he decides to investigate, the sign says "You are welcome to watch", so he goes in. I'm not sure there is any message in this movie, but I had a great feeling of joy watching these adult men dance. No sex, no murders, and only one curse word. An entertaining 100 minutes.
SPOILERS. For some reason John decides to take ballroom dancing lessons weekly without ever mentioning it to his wife or children. That seems unusual to me, but I suppose sometimes a husband or wife just feels they want to do something as an individual rather than as a family. He is obviously attracted to Paulina, but we never get the impression that he is considering cheating on his marriage. He learns to dance, while Beverly gets suspicious and hires a PI to see what he is up to. At the dance competition, the PI tells his wife and daughter, they go, cheer dad on, who freaks out and freezes, dropping his partner, when he realizes they are there. But all ends well as he inspires Paulina to return to England to work seriously for competition, and the dancing gives John a new joy in life. John shows up at Beverly's work, with a red rose and an intention to teach her to dance.
John taking dance lessons and entering a formal competition without ever telling his wife seems, to me, a bit far-fetched. However, it is an entertaining movie and all ends well.