watchable, but that's about it

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2006)

The Japanese movie Shall We Dansu was charming, funny and a bit of a mess. This remake actually fixes some of the weaknesses of the plot but loses way too much of the charm and humor.
You really can't expect a lot from a movie starring too of Hollywood's least charismatic romantic leads, and it's no surprise that Gere and Lopez turn in forgettable, generic performances. Arguably this is acceptable from Gere; he plays a rather colorless drone to begin with, but it would be nice if Lopez had shown a little spark. She's pretty awful in this, tending to seem colorless but occasionally reaching the point of tears with little justification.
On the bright side, Lopez's turn around isn't as jarring as in the original, and Gere's behavior and his wife's makes more sense. This is not to say that the movie isn't painfully Hollywood, but its probably no worse in the respect than the original. And the supporting cast is decent, although Stanley Tucci isn't nearly as funny as Naoto Takenaka was in the original.
The last thing to note is that the dancing is poorly filmed. Now, this isn't a dance movie per se, it's a movie about how dancing effects people, but one still would expect the few dance scenes to be competently filmed. Instead, one gets no sense of movement or dance throughout the movie; the camera seems to unerringly go the opposite direction from where it should.
None of this makes it a horrible movie, but it's certainly a weak one.