Entertaining but stumbles badly during final reels (spoilers)

Rating: 6/10 (26 September 2004)

This remake of a 1996 Japanese film works surprisingly well for much of its length, a fast-paced and funny piece of work about a middle-aged man (Richard Gere) bored with his life who decides to take dancing lessons after seeing a pretty teacher (Jennifer Lopez) staring out the window of the studio while taking the L home.
The film is shameless but effective in wringing laughs from the uptight businessman slowly discovering the joys of dancing and loosening up, keeping the lessons from his family who notice that he is happier lately and that he seems to come home late every Wednesday night with a different excuse. The man's wife (Susan Sarandon) becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair.
The movie chugs along effortlessly for its first hour, hugely entertaining. Then during a dance competition after one character stumbles badly so unfortunately does the movie. The pacing becomes jerky and trips under unnecessary and pointless narrative complications. Unfortunately pretty much every decision the filmmakers made during the final reels is completely wrong, none more so than the ending. After showing us for an hour how dancing brought pleasure back into the businessman's life there probably isn't a person in the theater who would actually want him to give up dancing at the end, but that is essentially what happens. The film creates a false choice between dancing and marriage that is never justified or believable (even his family doesn't want him to quit).
Maybe the filmmakers shot multiple endings and this was the one that test-marketed the best but it really doesn't work. It's a shame. For most of it's length Shall We Dance is graceful, funny and effortlessly charming, but the last half hour is a terrible mess. Still, the preview audience I saw this crowd-pleaser with seemed pleased enough, cheering during the end credits and smiling and chatting on their way out of the theater, so maybe the flaws aren't serious enough to keep this movie from becoming a modest hit.