STRICTLY BALLROOM
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Who would have expected a subtle and
very funny satire of bad movie making in an Australian film
about competition ballroom dancers? This film may be more
on-target than THE PLAYER. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4).
Society has its rules. Because of these rules everybody knows where they stand and what is expected of them. Who c Scott Hastings started to go wrong. He came from a good family. His parents ran a ballroom dancing studio. Scott himself had the makings of one of Australia's great ballroom dancers. Then one day Scott broke society's rules. In the middle of a minor ballroom competition Scott just snapped. Suddenly he was dancing his own steps--steps not accepted by the Australian Ballroom Dance Federation. Here in Technicolor and stereophonic sound is the story of Australia's Spartacus of ballroom dancing.
Here also is a delightful satire of really bad over-ripe dramatic story-telling. It is all here: the boy with the dream, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, the pushy mother, the conspiracy to fix the big dance competition, the dark secret from the past, and, of course, the climatic dance competition. And not one un-telegraphed plot twist. In fact, everything is here to make the plot feel like an old friend. The target is contrived film plotting and STRICTLY BALLROOM hits the mark with deadly accuracy.
The film stars Paul Mercurio as Scott Hastings, who instinctively knows that a man has got to dance the way a man has got to dance. Actually, this particular man DOES dance very well, not that that is really the point of the film. Scott's love is Fran (played by Tara Morice). She has glasses and a bad complexion, and is ugly and surprisingly clumsy, but inside she knows she has what it takes to be beautiful and a great formal dancer. Bill Hunter plays Barry Fife, who wrote the videocassette on ballroom dancing. But does he hide a sinister secret?
This is a film that has echoes of what is wrong in even the most popular films from 42ND STREET to ROCKY and HOOSIERS. I give this one a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. It's a hoot!
Mark R. Leeper
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