Shall We Dance? - No

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2004)

Last night at the Bijou I wasn't bored, but I was disappointed. Richard Gere as in "Chicago" once again has good editing and schtick to sneak by as a dancer. Frank Sinatra in his narration of "That's Entertainment" said of Astaire, Kelly, Powell, Charise, "you can hope and pray but you won't see the likes of them again". Films like this prove it. Dance sequences are edited 80% with close up and waist up shots. The few full body shots (where you actually see feet dancing) are cleverly edited in no more than a couple of dance steps lasting a couple of seconds. I imagine they worked long and hard with many takes getting some decent head to toe footage. Jennifer Lopez, who I understand was trained as a dancer, is at best 2nd rate. Gere cannot be rated, he's not a dancer. You do get to see some great dancing, but its cuts of Astaire and Charise on TV in the background. A harsh reminder of how poor Gere and Lopez do it. Poor Susan Sarandon is terribly miscast as the suspicious wife, but she tries hard to make convincing the implausible spouses conflict sub plot which is near laughable. A good film to wait for the DVD