Trying to improve on a good thing

Rating: 5/10 (4 December 2005)

I am a ballroom dancer. I saw the original Japanese version. I thought that version had a bit more humanity to it than the American version. This version was a bit too Americanized. The main plot was not believable. The actors could have been better chosen. While Jennifer Lopez is a dancer she is way out of her league with the main players (Gere & Sarandon) and the supporting players (Tucci & Gilette). She is unable to convince an audience of her character. One never forgets it's her playing a part. The background for her character as the daughter of a dry cleaner inspired to do ballroom because she liked the costumes is a bit of a stretch. Anything could have been more believable than that. The Bobbie character was a bit too contrived. Her fixation about her "Butt" was over the top and unnecessary. Maybe this was an in joke about JLo's butt. I don't know.
I did enjoy the ballroom dancing. It is clear that Richard Gere and the other two students put more time in than JLo. Stanley Tucci certainly pulled off the comedic element of the character. However he was no "Mr. Aoki" as from the Japanse version. All in all this is nothing more than a "B" movie version of an "A" movie foreign film.