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revdorothyl at 05:17pm on 22/10/2004 under movie reviews
revdorothyl at 05:17pm on 22/10/2004 under movie reviewsI saw the Richard Gere/Susan Sarandon/Jennifer Lopez film "Shall We Dance?" last Sunday afternoon in a group composed of me, a male friend from the graduate student fellowship group, and three other women friends of his from the ballroom dance lessons he's been taking this year -- giving rise to all the obligatory jokes about harems and suggestions that he carry a copy of The Book of Mormon with him to keep people from getting the wrong idea (accusations of polygyny being preferable, apparently, to having everyone assume -- from his mauve shirt and spiffy appearance -- that he's just 'one of the girls').
Because I got to the theater more than 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet the rest of my group, I had ample opportunity to observe the folks coming out of the previous screening of "Shall We Dance?" -- from which I gathered that it was a really great over-35 date movie (many middle-aged and even gray-haired couples with that indefinable "long-time-married" air about them coming out holding hands and grinning from ear to ear, and occasionally performing a little dance step or two in the hallway of the multiplex), and that groups of women of all ages seem to really enjoy Richard Gere.
The movie is not exactly profound, and the actual dance scenes were nowhere near as impressive as those in "Strictly Ballroom" or "Dance With Me" -- but they weren't trying to be. What "Shall We Dance?" aimed to do -- to depict yet another variegated group of people somehow managing to build a community and even a fairly functional extended family around a shared interest and mutual care -- it did very well, I thought.
And Richard Gere just seems to get sexier and more genuinely likable with each succeeding year.
If you're looking for a grin-from-ear-to-ear-on-the-way-out movie about people who are all basically really decent and likable, in spite of the occasionally stupid or thoughtless or pompous things they do, then I can strongly recommend "Shall We Dance?"
(And if you take your parents or older friends to see it, I'm pretty sure you'll all have a good time and come out very much in charity with one another.)
Because I got to the theater more than 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet the rest of my group, I had ample opportunity to observe the folks coming out of the previous screening of "Shall We Dance?" -- from which I gathered that it was a really great over-35 date movie (many middle-aged and even gray-haired couples with that indefinable "long-time-married" air about them coming out holding hands and grinning from ear to ear, and occasionally performing a little dance step or two in the hallway of the multiplex), and that groups of women of all ages seem to really enjoy Richard Gere.
The movie is not exactly profound, and the actual dance scenes were nowhere near as impressive as those in "Strictly Ballroom" or "Dance With Me" -- but they weren't trying to be. What "Shall We Dance?" aimed to do -- to depict yet another variegated group of people somehow managing to build a community and even a fairly functional extended family around a shared interest and mutual care -- it did very well, I thought.
And Richard Gere just seems to get sexier and more genuinely likable with each succeeding year.
If you're looking for a grin-from-ear-to-ear-on-the-way-out movie about people who are all basically really decent and likable, in spite of the occasionally stupid or thoughtless or pompous things they do, then I can strongly recommend "Shall We Dance?"
(And if you take your parents or older friends to see it, I'm pretty sure you'll all have a good time and come out very much in charity with one another.)
(no subject)
That said, I still can't quite get over the fact that he's playing the role of the Japanese salaryman in the original! Weirdness!
(no subject)
I agree, though, that Gere has grown into his likability -- when he was young, he just seemed too pretty and full of himself, but with the gray hair has come much more of the self-deprecating charm that makes him really sexy.
(no subject)
Gere's role in Pretty Woman is still my favorite because he plays against the way he's usually typecast. But recently, I've really loved him in Chicago too -- you could just see how much he was enjoying playing the smarmy lawyer he usually plays, and that just really helped make the movie.
(no subject)
He has gotten better-looking with age, though.
(no subject)
However, Gere's performances in "First Knight" (first movie I ever saw him in where I could see what all the fuss was about) and "Pretty Woman" were quite endearing. His role in "The Runaway Bride" turned out to be quite sympathetic, as well, but that wasn't anything like as entertaining a movie as "First Knight" or "Pretty Woman."
And in "Shall We Dance" he doesn't carry nearly as much baggage (as his characters in the films mentioned above) or have any particular coldness or trauma to get over. He's just a really surprisingly good-looking middle-aged average guy who's kind and decent and well-loved, but who yearning to loosen up a bit and learns to express some of his hidden passion in dance.
I see so few movies in which middle-aged people (in other words, people actually OLDER than myself, rather than 15 or 20 years younger) that I'm inclined to cut "Shall We Dance?" a lot of slack, and to give Richard Gere much credit for playing an attractive and REALLY NICE slightly older guy, I guess.