I let Christy choose the movie tonight. The result was Shall We Dance. "Oh god!" my sympathetic readers exclaim. Well, don't fret too much for my well-being. J-Lo was nowhere in sight.
This is actually the second film named Shall We Dance that I have watched. And again, J-Lo was nowhere in sight. Shall We Dance (1996) was an amusing Japanese film that played at Ebert's film festival back in 2003. The J-Lo "effort" was a remake of that film. The Christy selection was the 1937 film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Now that the clarifications are out of the way, on to my review of the film. Shall We Dance (1937) tries to be what many musicals try to be-part comedy, part drama, part dance, and part singing. It succeeds at the third. The comedy needed to be diminished. Lame comedy vignettes needed to hit the cutting room floor, including the record setting number of double-takes by Edward Everett Horton's character during the first 15 minutes. The drama was underdeveloped, as the relationship between Astaire and Rogers seemed to flash between cold and hot, cold and hot, in a love'im or hate'im fashion. The singing was ok. Fortunately the songs, by the brothers Gershwin, were relatively brief. They were not very memorable, except for the ultra-famous "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me."
Finally, the dancing was good. Spike Lee would be pissed off by a number that takes place in the bowells of a cruise ship, a location that is entirely populated by black workers. The workers wait around for whitey to show up, at which time they can perform while whitey dances to their music. One could look at the scene as offensive, or perhaps it was a restrictive way to provide some diversity in an otherwise monotone film.
Other dancing included a number on roller skates! Now, this was impressive. Not quite as impressive as the dancing woman who contorted her body in a right angle (backwards), but still impressive. Astaire and Rogers were able to keep perfectly in sync with each other, which must have taken ample practice or a multitude of takes. [Holy bejesus, I just read that this scene took around 150 takes! Wow.]
*** (out of 5)
