I was sure I already had a review of this so this might end up a little on the short side. I’m pretty sure I’ve said something about Erzsebet Foldi before, that’s why I thought I’d reviewed it already … ‘cos what I thought I’d written was, how is this movie the only thing she was ever in?! An amazing dancer, beautiful to behold, so natural before the camera, and perfectly cast as Scheider’s loving, precious, brotherless, generous (“underlined 3 times” lol) daughter … yet this is her only film credit, it’s incredible.

Anyway, clearly the reason I watched this this weekend is due to the sad passing of Roy Scheider this past week. Of course, at 76, he had a great innings – certainly better than Bob Fosse, who he basically portrays here – but it still saddened me to hear of it. This movie already had resonance outside of its surface appearance due to just how much Fosse put himself into it. Now – at least, this week, I find it serves as a perfect farewell to Scheider. It struck me during the last scene how it might strike some as a tad tasteless to watch it at such a time, ‘cos I know there are a lot of people who prefer death be confined to grave grief, black suits, hearses and mourning; but I think it’s perfect in its attitude to death … that celebration scene of “Bye Bye Life” countered so slapfaced by the snapback to “the only reality” at the end, the body bag being zipped up.

You can see Scheider’s Gideon so many ways – ego is always mentioned in reviews of the movie; it’s easy to sense he has no self-awareness, doesn’t know what he’s doing or who he’s hurting etc. I think he has total self-awareness; he just doesn’t care. And to me the film’s biggest comment is: why should he, when death is so inevitable? It’s a kind of Fight Club / American Beauty type message, as dangerous as it is profound. I still don’t know what to make of these movies entirely, some days I love them and some days I realise what an ass I am to love them so; I know that when I’m watching they are fun though; that Scheider’s performance is incredible; that the song and dance numbers start brilliant and only get better as the movie goes on; that we’re lucky to even have one movie featuring Erzsebet Foldi; and that anything that can make me get in such a twist reviewing is pretty much always worthy of 5 hearts.

Julia Stiles is compelling in everything she does. I didn’t expect to enjoy this movie as much as I did. It’s yet another Karate Kid/Dirty Dancing, Rocky, Flashdance, you name it. The one person who shouldn’t by any conventional reality “make it”, makes it against the odds. Here that person is Julia Stiles. There is an estranged-father/daughter subplot in this movie that is far too similar to Fly Away Home and not aided by the fact that said estranged father in this movie is played by the same actor who played Anna Paquin’s uncle in the latter. What works wonderfully in this movie is the juxtaposition and harmony of the two worlds of ballet (Stiles’ aspiration) and hip-hop (where she learns the passion she needs to give her sound ballet technique wings).

Here’s another movie destroyed by its ending. Overall, this movie is a zillion times better than expected. But when Liann Rimes appears, I lost any and all respect I had for the movie. It is possibly the worst ending ever. It’s sad, because Piper Perabo is pretty stunning in the lead, and as a whole, the movie runs as slickly as Flashdance or Dirty Dancing... but the ending is just somehow unforgivable for me.