What a great movie. I have always loved dancing, really wonderful dancing. Jennifer Lopez is beautiful to watch and makes me sure I want to pursue this magic of music and dance even more.

Yes, a great movie. Realistic dance environment and great individual attitude exploration. I enjoyed a lot. Very stimulating. However, it seemed to fall just a bit shy, for me in one area. That is the area of artistic intensity. The movies "Shakespeare in Love" and "Moulin Rouge", I thought had some of that intensity. "Shall We Dance" seems to me to fumble around a bit with "Why people would want to dance." The answers seemed slightly flippant or frivolous, although for Richard Greer meaningful motivations seemed tempted to spring out. It seems to me that such a movie could have the opportunity to project more passion in the drive of the artist to express what is mandated in his or her soul. That is why many people dance.

Oh my gosh! I saw that movie the other day and I really liked it. It seemed like they made the progression way too fast though (I don't think anyone could learn that quickly with only one class a week). And I also can't really picture JLo at Blackpool :/ But it will totally help the dance industry! I kinda didn't like how they percieved dance though. Instead of making it look like an art or hobby, they made it seem much more sexual, which it is in may aspects, but they overdid it a bit. But still a great movie! I had so much fun seeing it with all of my dance friends.

Malcolm,

You hit it right on the button for me compared to the original.

My wife and I thouroughly enjoyed it and we had fun discussing the difference from the original movie.

I think they did a good job of changing it to the "American Experience" while keeping true to or respecting the original.

One big difference was the J. Lo character was better developed in the original. We understand more why she maintains her distance from the Richard Gere character and the passion you talk about.

The original also had more of the stratification that happens in group classes (I won't dance with so and so because they aren't good enough!, etc.)

I also found the "nerds" (male & female)more believable in the original. Stanley Tucci's character was good but too over the top for me. (Then again, maybe Japanese people will think the opposite when they see the American version).

About 25 people from our club went together and I'm sure we could have sold memberships in the end.

All in all an enjoyable evening. I liked both versions.

OB

Sadly, this movie doesn't appear to have arrived in Ireland yet. Can't wait to see it.
All 'spots'-type movies(OK i know dance is artistic too) fail to give a true picture of the amount of work/dedication required.

All I want to know is where to find a Blackpool finalist who teaches for $45 an hour! ;)

Oh I know!!! I think that they made the price cheaper so that it would appeal to the non-dance world. lol.If they said, "Oh that will be 70-100 dollars," then I don't think many people would be encouraged to dance. I couldn't help but laugh when she said that in the movie.

Not to forget she tells Richard Gere, "55 days to the competition and we'll need 3 hours a night."

Let's see:

That's $45 x 55 nights x 3 hrs./night = $7,425.00

No wonder his wife was p*ss*d!

Still, it was worth it to be able to dance out of syllabus in a novice competition.

Plus, he had to have bribed the judges not to have been called to the judging table for dancing illegal steps.

OBehave

Many novice competitions in the US allow out of syllabus steps, so he wasn't dancing anything illegal.