Not much to do here except slap on a 5-star rating and add the DVD cover to this old review. I wasn’t in the mood for watching much at all but this appeared on the TV and I couldn’t turn it off. A beautiful movie.

28th March 2004:

I usually hate transformation movies where the girl gets the guy because she prettifies herself – Grease and She’s All That are the major ones I usually get peeved by, mainly because of how much other people seem to like them. This movie has the worst sin associated with that kind of transformation movie – Fran, the girl, takes off her glasses to rub her eye or something, and Scott, the guy, asks, “Can you dance without those? It might help.”

The reason I don’t hate this movie like I should for that scene is because the transformation is extremely subtle… hardly anything is really done to change her appearance, but what little is done is only enough to enhance the change we see that has nothing to do with her physical appearance. She becomes more beautiful because we get to know her and we see her own confidence grow. By the end of the movie, you can’t imagine she was ever as un-beautiful as she is in her first scene, because you know she’s always been the same Fran, and Fran the person is beautiful… she brings the message to the movie, “A life lived in fear is a life half lived,” and through her comes the final rhythm of the dance.

This is by far my favourite Baz Luhrman movie… at a first glance it doesn’t seem as rich and developed as Romeo + Juliet or Moulin Rouge!. It certainly had a lower budget and that shows – thing is, I think the low budget maybe actually adds to the whole atmosphere of the movie. The tackier this world looks, the more truthful the movie’s message becomes. I love how all the ballroom people treat their dances and contests etc like royal procedings, they line up their trophies and dress in their cheap looking costumes thinking like this is the absolute pinnacle… and then Luhrman cuts to a wide shot and shows how they’re basically doing all this in what amounts to a school gym hall. I’m no fashion expert at all, and confess to having no style, but I don’t think I’m wrong in appreciating how much better Scott and Fran’s look is in the final scene… I love how their look develops throughout the movie. It’s not just Fran who gets the makeover – their entire coordination and chemistry develops.

The use of the song “Time After Time” always gets me in this movie… and Luhrman doesn’t over use it… he repeats it about 3 times – once as an instrumental, then only playing one segment, holding off the chorus as long as possible, and then he leaves it, leaves you wanting more of the song. My favourite moment in the movie comes as Scott and Fran dance on the rooftop in front of a Coca-Cola sign (I’m not even going to try being cynical about product placement here… the shot is beautiful – take a look at the sign when the camera is up close) and “Time After Time” plays over it…. that is one of my all time favourite images.

The ending is perfect… some might call it an open ending, but it completely finishes the story, the point being, it doesn’t matter whether they won… the point was to dance.

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