Married lawyer John Clark (Richard Gere), whose life has become stuck in a rut, takes a shine to a ballroom dance instructor named Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) and begins taking lessons in hopes of getting to know her better. Clark refuses to tell his wife Beverly (Susan Sarandon) about his newfound passion for dance, which leads her to think he’s having an affair. Only after hiring a private detective to follow her husband does she learn the surprising truth.

CRITIQUE

The producers of Shall We Dance? want us to believe this movie is an engaging look at a middle-aged man going through a mid-life crisis, but I can’t help but see it as 106 long minutes of Richard Gere trying to decide if he’d rather sleep with Susan Sarandon or Jennifer Lopez. (Poor him; could there possibly be a worse dilemma?) I think this is largely due to the fact that the movie takes a familiar plot (it will be familiar even to those who haven’t seen the superior 1996 Japanese film on which this is based), peoples it with stock characters, and consequently offers no surprises whatsoever. Gere smiles a lot, Sarandon constantly looks surprised, and Lopez once again proves that only directors named Nava and Soderbergh can get good performances out of her. Other than that, not much happens.

A large part of the problem here is that the story lacks the cultural resonance and relevance of the original. The Japanese version benefitted from the fact that ballroom dance (a Western invention) is a bit taboo in that country, with its practitioners looked down upon or even mistrusted. That added some depth to the lead character, making him something of an iconoclast. In this version Gere’s character, to put it bluntly, just seems like another older man out to score some young tail. There needs to be something more than that for this story to work, and this version is sorely lacking that something more.

There’s also a serious inconsistency of tone here. The half with Gere yearning to break free from the sameness of his everyday life is played a bit too earnestly; at the same time there’s an awful lot of lame sitcom-level comedy. Fifteen minutes in and poor Stanley Tucci--playing a co-worker of Gere’s who hides his love for dance and doing a far better job than the movie deserves--is running around trying to prevent Gere from removing the bad wig he’s wearing. (I think it’s the same wig Peter Sellers sported in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. It certainly looks like it’s been sitting in a closet for the past forty years.)

Moreover, all of the dance sequences provide plenty of contrived opportunities for people to fall down or otherwise make fools of themselves. Oddly enough, much of the same can be found in the original, but there it worked. But here director Peter Chelsom (who helmed the troubled Warren Beatty turkey Town & Country) and writer Audrey Wells (who penned the saccharine Bruce Willis flick The Kid) strain to do what they think will please their audience, and their labored efforts only serve to underscore just how hollow, pointless and by-the-numbers this movie is.

Furthermore, Chelsom (who is directing the upcoming Hannah Montana flick, which seems about right) also keeps the plot moving at a snail’s pace. The pacing isn’t deliberate, it’s just slow. You’d think the dance sequences would kick things up a notch, but even they have no energy. Making it through this movie is one sitting is something of an endurance test, and it’s certainly not one I feel compelled to undertake again.

THE VIDEO

The visuals here are unadorned and frills-free, and the 1.85:1/1080p transfer ably captures this naturalistic look. Colors run the gamut from bold pastels to rich primaries and deep blacks, all of which are well rendered. Detail is above average, and there’s a nice sense of depth. Detail and depth do experience a slight drop-off in some of the darker interiors, but on the whole this is a very solid transfer. It doesn’t have the eye-catching pop found in the best next-gen transfers, but I’d say this is largely due to the nature of the material.

THE AUDIO

Despite all of the music and dancing, the sound mix for this movie is rather restrained, so don’t expect much in the way of surround action from this disc’s uncompressed PCM 5.1 track; both the sparse surround usage and bass action are largely spillover from the music. There is a nice spread across the front channels, with the dialogue--which always comes through clearly--firmly anchored in the center. English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are also included. English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The commentary by director Peter Chelsom will likely appeal to fans of the movie, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t quickly become bored by the seemingly endless discussion of how to stage and shoot dance numbers.  

Up next is a series of eight deleted scenes (16 minutes total). Most are superfluous characters moments, although one is an excised dance sequence. Chelsom also provides optional commentary for these scenes.

Behind the Scenes of Shall We Dance? (24 minutes) may be longer than your average EPK-style making-of featurette, but it’s no more interesting or informative.

The Music of Shall We Dance? (4 minutes) is essentially a plug for the soundtrack CD, with a couple of the represented acts talking about their contributions.

Beginners’ Ballroom (6 minutes) features Gere and choreographer John O’Connell talking about the cast’s dance preparations.

Round out the extras is a music video for the Pussycat Dolls’ “Sway.” (If you’re like me, you’ll enjoy this one more with the sound off.)

FINAL THOUGHTS