Dance With A Stranger
Starring Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm
"Dance With A Stranger" is an awful film. I just had to get that off my chest before I went any further. It is probably the worst film I've seen since "Gummo", and, at the time, I figured it would be years before I saw another movie at that level of "badness". I was wrong.
"Dance With A Stranger" tells the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England. You'd think with such an interesting story like that, you'd have a rich and exciting movie. Well, you'd be sorely mistaken. The biggest problem with the film is that they don't bother dealing with the fact that Ellis was the last woman to be executed. In fact, we don't see her crime until the last two minutes of the film, with the remainder of her story told to us through cards at the very end of the movie. The rest of the film follows Ruth and her relationships with Everett and Holm. And that's it.
I completely did not care at all about Ellis' background or what motive she may have had to commit the crime responsible for her death. It may have been appropriate to give us a little bit of history of her life, just so that we can relate to her a bit, but to completely avoid any discussion of why her life is worthy of being made into a film, is inexcusable. By the time we see her commit her crime, we are under the impression that she actually *deserves* to be executed. Well, at least I was. I had no sympathy for her, and I was actually hoping that the filmmakers would at least show her being hanged. No such luck.
Miranda Richardson made her screen debut in this film, and it's a miracle she was able to find any other work after. She is simply terrible in this movie. She plays Ruth Ellis as a whiney and hysterical woman who has no idea what she wants. This character got on my nerves after only 2 minutes of screen time. I had to sit through another 100 minutes of watching her "bitch and moan"! It was painful.
Ian Holm and Rupert Everett give competent performances as the men in her life. But we don't really get to find out too much about them, since the film is focused primarily on Ruth Ellis' story.
I don't know if I can stress this enough, but "Dance With A Stranger" is a BAD BAD BAD BAD movie. If you ever come across it on television some time, quickly flip to the next channel. Heck, if you're ever walking along, and you see a copy of it just laying on the ground, stomp on it until it is unrecognizable.
You'll be doing yourself a favor.
Dave "Loopy" Nusair dnusair@chat.carleton.ca
; "The Artist Formally Known As Prince is now going by just The Artist. ; : Despite this, I will still refer to him as The Fruit." : ; -Norm MacDonald ;
Dept. of Good Vibes, Come visit my Reel Film Reviews site Carleton University at "http://chat.carleton.ca/~dnusair"
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