Shall We Recast Lopez?

Rating: 8/10 (16 December 2015)

Shall We Dance? (2004): Dir: Peter Chelsom / Cast: Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins: Romantic comedy about invitation or risk. Richard Gere is bored with his routine life and marriage. He arrives home by subway but always gazes upward towards the dance studio where Jennifer Lopez stands motionless. He secretly enrolls in ballroom dancing thus giving him fulfillment but his wife suspects foul play and hires an investigator. While repetitious the setup is catchy and the ending is rewarding. Director Peter Chelsom does a fine job at examining ballroom dancing within the relationship established but Jennifer Lopez is disappointing in a stiff performance. She begins the film as an image observed in a window with a blank gaze on her face. From there it is pretty straightforward for her. Gere has fun as a guy stepping into a hidden passion that will ultimately prove rewarding. Susan Sarandon is well cast as his suspicious wife who is speechless to the sudden new behavior from her husband. Stanley Tucci steals scenes as Gere's boss who secretly dances donning a wig. That of course, gives way to lame homosexual stereotypes but Tucci wings it. Richard Jenkins plays a private investigator hired by Sarandon, who will be flustered at the facts he unearths. Celebration of dancing and its inner circle relationships result in a charming film. Score: 8 ½ / 10