|
|
| Just
as anyone can chose to join in at a dance or stand by the wall simply
to watch, the decision to seek a life of meaning, passion, and emotion
is also a choice. In the same way that Paulina urges Clark to not
abandon dancing by painting the question "Shall we dance, Mr. Clark?"
on a banner, I believe each of us is also being asked the same question. |
(2004) Film Review by Elisabeth
Leitch |
| This
page was created on October 20, 2004
This page was last updated on
December 11, 2004
—Review by Elisabeth Leitch
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
—Blog
with Elisabeth
Dial up modems will take a few moments |
| CREDITS |
| Directed
by Peter Chelsom
1997
Screenplay by Masayuki Suo
Screenplay by Audrey Wells
Cast
(in credits order)
Richard Gere .... John Clark
Jennifer Lopez .... Paulina
Susan Sarandon .... Beverly Clark
Stanley Tucci .... Link Peterson
Bobby Cannavale .... Chic
Lisa Ann Walter .... Bobbie
Omar Benson Miller .... Vern
Anita Gillette .... Miss Mitzi
Richard Jenkins .... Devine
Nick Cannon .... Scottie
Mya
Produced
by
Jennifer Berman .... co-executive producer
Simon Fields .... producer
Amy Israel .... co-executive producer
Original Music by John Altman and Gabriel Yared
Cinematography by John de Borman
Film Editing by Charles Ireland
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some sexual references
and brief language.
Runtime: USA:106 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
|
| TRAILERS
AND CLIPS |
| —Trailers,
Photos |
| CD |
Shall
We Dance?
Various Artists - Soundtrack - 2004
1. Sway - Pussycat Dolls
2. Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre) - Go Tan Project
3. Happy Feet
4. Espana Cani
5. I Wanna (Shall We Dance) - Gizelle D'Cole and Pilar Montenegro
6. Perfidia
7. Under the Bridges of Paris
8. Moon River
9. Andelucia
10. Book Of Love - Peter Gabriel
11. L Train
12. I Could Have Danced All Night - Jamie Cullum
13. Wonderland - Rachel Fuller
14. Shall We Dance
15. Let's Dance - Mya
|
| POSTER |
|
| AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD |
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|
| SYNOPSIS
|
| Chicago
lawyer John Clark (RICHARD GERE) knows his life is almost perfect.
He loves his beautiful wife (SUSAN SARANDON), he’s built a successful
career and raised two wonderful kids. And yet . . . the workday is
always the same routine, the commute is a grind and the family’s
usually too busy to spend time together. Sometimes John wonders if
this is all there is, until one evening on his way home from work
he gets off his train and does the unthinkable. Without telling a
soul, he secretly begins taking dance lessons. Suddenly, John is thrust
into a whole new world – of motion, music, camaraderie and passion.
As this very serious man becomes literally light on his feet, his
whole life, and marriage, transforms.
The
uplifting and comic story of a man’s renewal, SHALL WE DANCE
is inspired by the runaway Japanese hit of the same name. In this
new version, starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon
and Stanley Tucci, the tale of a quiet workaholic finding wild rapture
on the dance floor is transported to the American search for happiness.
It
all begins when John Clark is riding the evening train, and spots
out his window a young dance teacher (JENNIFER LOPEZ) staring back
at him from the run-down Miss Mitzi’s Studio. Haunted by her
gaze, John looks for her night after night. Finally, he gets off
the train and signs up for the beginner’s series of ballroom
dance lessons. At his first class, John spends more time on the
floor than gliding across it. Awkward and shy, it seems unlikely
he’ll ever find any grace at all. But soon, dance becomes
John’s obsession, his escape, his one means of pure joy. He’s
drawn further and further into this exotic realm, even discovering
a fellow employee who’s also hiding his ballroom dance habit
(STANLEY TUCCI), while pretending to be a sports jock.
Yet
John cannot seem to tell his wife Beverly about his new-found love
out of fear that she’ll think he’s unfulfilled by their
marriage. As he clandestinely prepares for Chicago’s biggest
dance competition, his secretive behavior causes Beverly to hire
a detective, suspecting that John’s having an affair. But
John will soon discover that it isn’t enough to chase his
most private dreams -- because the best part is sharing them.
|
 Review
by ELISABETH LEITCH
Elisabeth Leitch is a graduate of the University of California San
Diego with a BA in Literature-Writing. A person who has always loved
movies, she never ceases to be amazed with the way movies impact
viewers by both reflecting and asking questions about the culture
and world in which we live. Currently, Elisabeth spends her days
working in a local bookstore and seeking what God has in store for
her future. She has also worked as a reporter/writer for the Los
Alamos Monitor and the New Mexico Business Journal. |
I
admit it. I had not planned on seeing this movie. As I went to watch
it, I already had it pigeonholed into a variety of stereotypes-Richard
Gere movie, JLo movie, dance movie, chick flick, probably-not-as-good-as-the-foreign-original
movie. Nonetheless, I found myself in a theater with a friend watching
it the other night, and even in its simple, fairly predictable story,
it caught me. While its previews had marketed the movie primarily
as a romantic story about passion and love, as I watched it, I found
that Shall We Dance? was about something more than
the passion of romance: in the end, it told a story about seeking
and finding a passion and love for life itself.
 Shall
We Dance? opens with Richard Gere's John Clark riding home
on the subway. He is talking to himself or us and tells us he is
a lawyer and spends most of his days drawing up wills for his clients.
He talks about the things people leave in wills and the process
of someone making and revising a will. Then he tells us his response
to his clients' question of "is there anything else?" His answer
is: "The rest is up to you," and in this statement he sets the stage
for the movie to come-the reality that sometimes life can seem as
structured and mundane as the legalese in a will, but if we choose
to seek it, to find it, to see it, life can be much more.
 For
John Clark, this journey to finding that something more to life
occurs through dance. While he leads a good life, has a good job,
and loves his family, he still seems discontented. Then, one night,
he finds himself enrolling in a dance class after recognizing the
same longing he feels inside himself on the face of a woman (Jennifer
Lopez) staring out a dance studio window he passes every night.
He is joined by two other men-Chic, in it for the women, and Scotty,
in it to lose weight and get ready to propose to his girlfriend;
Bobbie, a hardworking single mother who spends her evenings dancing;
Miss Mitzy, the studio owner and a widow; Paulina (Lopez), a professional
dancer who has retreated to the studio after a fall at a major competition;
and later, Link (Stanley Tucci), a costumed coworker of Clark's
who loves Latin dance but feels he can't dance as himself.
As the story unfolds, the members of the class not only learn to
dance but also seem to find a deeper value in themselves and in
their lives. Miss Mitzy stops going to her bottle in the cupboard
during class and smiles, simply because she enjoys what she is doing,
Paulina rediscovers her passion for dance, Clark quits moping home
every night and instead dances all the way across the street and
onto his train, Link eventually loses his wig, and all of the students
enter a dance competition together. Although setbacks occur towards
the end of the movie, by the time the credits roll, dance has become
a positive part of all of the characters' lives, not as something
extra they needed to add, but as something that just helped them
find meaning in the lives they already had and the people they already
were.
 Reflecting
on Shall We Dance? in connection with real life,
I can't help but think how much life really can be like dancing.
Sometimes we simply don't know the steps, we feel foolish, and we
just don't know what to do. Other times, we miss steps, we trip,
we fall. More often than not, the dance can feel more like a routine,
like the same songs and the same steps over and over again, more
like marching, less like really dancing. In many instances, we feel
as though all we can do is dance alone and even if it is possible,
it just isn't quite the same as having a partner.
Just as all of the characters in Shall We Dance?
were able to find value in their lives through dancing, I wonder
if we also may be able to find that deeper meaning if we stop moping
and marching and start dancing. I think about how lives might be
transformed if each movement was not mechanical but filled with
passion, emotion, purpose, and direction connected to each step
we took. I ask myself how much more meaning each life on earth might
have if we, like Clark, stopped being ashamed of not finding meaning
in the things the world says should satisfy us and actually seek
lives of deeper meaning and purpose.
Just as anyone can chose to join in at a dance or stand by the wall
simply to watch, the decision to seek a life of meaning, passion,
and emotion is also a choice. In the same way that Paulina urges
Clark to not abandon dancing by painting the question "Shall we
dance, Mr. Clark?" on a banner, I believe each of us is also being
asked the same question on a daily basis, being asked by someone
who knows the steps to every dance, who knows each of our individual
styles, each of our individual abilities, and the true potential
that is inside each and every one of us. In the same way that Beverly
Clark's (Susan Sarandon's) desire for a husband to be someone to
care for her and make sure her life does not go unnoticed or unwitnessed
is answered by her husband taking her hand and teaching her to dance,
God also extends his hand to that same longing in us, ready to lead
us, teach us, pick us up whenever we fall, and asking us not just
to live, not just to settle, but to take His hand and let our life
become a dance.
—Blog
with Elisabeth
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| —Blog
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