(out of ****)
_Bootmen_ (R) * 1/2
_The_Fantasticks_ (PG) ***
Not all the talk surrounding Lars von Trier's _Dancer_in_the_Dark_ revolves around the film's love-it-or-hate-it qualities (though most of it is). With _Dancer_ taking the top prize at Cannes this year and Baz Luhrmann's _Moulin_Rouge_ on the horizon for next summer, there's been lots of rumbling about the "return" of the movie musical. The reality is, however, it never really went away, just mutated--into the "dance musical," which is a rather commonplace find at the cineplex these days.
_Bootmen_, the latest of this "dancing yes, singing no" brand of musical follows a rebellious young male steel worker in Australia wants to become a tap dancer. No, producer Jerry Bruckheimer hasn't taken his act down under and made a reverse-gender spinoff of _Flashdance_. Not that his absence from the credits makes much difference, anyhow, for _Bootmen_ plays very much like typical Bruckheimer--all shiny surfaces with nothing underneath.
For the most part, pretty boy star Adam Garcia perfectly personifies the faux Bruckheimer feel. His winning smile should be familiar--he was the vacuous slab of beef that sent hearts aflutter in _Coyote_Ugly_ (a bona fide Bruckheimer production, not so coincidentally). Unlike in that film, though, Garcia displays some talent in _Bootmen_--the talent to dance. That is certainly fortunate since he plays the aforementioned "rebel" tap dancer, who has real, raw talent but little patience for uptight tradition; a promising gig with a major Sydney dance company is taken from him as quickly as he wins it. So he and a few old friends decide to pursue an unlikely dream--form their own dance group in their industrial hometown of Newcastle. But "Bootmen" (as they call themselves) isn't your mother's tap troupe--a mix of traditional tap with the musical cacophony of STOMP and Björk's first musical number in _Dancer_in_the_Dark_, they're every bit about attitude as they are about dance.
Director Dein Perry is the creator of the popular Bootmen-like group Tap Dogs, so it comes as no surprise that the film's dance numbers are the energetic highlights. But a Bruckheimer knockoff wouldn't be one without a dose of treacly and completely bogus emotional content, and Perry and screenwriter Steve Worland don't fail to deliver. The threads designed to lend the film are obvious and heavyhanded--Sean's romance with a hairdresser (Sophie Lee), who also had a dalliance with his car thief younger brother Mitchell (Sam Worthington); Sean's relationship with his disapproving father (Richard Carter), who wants his son to forget his dreams and hold down an honest job in the factory. These stories offer nothing in the way of surprise--except perhaps the amount of violence in Mitchell's subplot.
With the plot leaving a lot to be desired, _Bootmen_ is left to sink or swim on the merits of its star--for better or worse. Whenever the film gives him an opportunity to flash his fancy footwork or simply stand there and exude cocky charisma, Garcia is able to coast by. Unfortunately, the dance sequences are too few and far between, as are the moments of silence, thus leaving him too much space to open his mouth and "act"--something he simply cannot do. Wisely (though not surprisingly), Perry ends his film with one big--and, crucially, mostly dialogue-free--dance extravaganza, but it's too little, too late.
It is tempting to call _The_Fantasticks_, Michael Ritchie's long-on-the-shelf (it was completed in 1995) film of the long-running off-Broadway musical as being too little, too late to revive the form of film musical that is indeed dead--the traditional type where characters burst into song (and, often, dance) at the drop of a hat and a full orchestral backing (and chorus) materializes just as spontaneously. The film is based on a play perhaps second-best known (behind the popular pair of tunes "Try to Remember" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain") for its minimalism in staging and story. And in remaining true to the spirit of the original production, Ritchie's _The_Fantasticks_ is hardly revolutionary; a trifle of a film based on a trifle of a show--and in its resolutely old-fashioned ways is where its ingratiating charm lies.
The writers of the original play, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, wrote the screenplay, and as such the simple story remains intact. Neighbors Bellomy (Joel Grey) and Hucklebee (Brad Sullivan) pretend to feud in an effort to bring Bellomy's daughter Luisa (Jean Louisa Kelly) and Hucklebee's son Matt (Joe McIntyre) together. Their plan works, and they enlist the aid of mysterious carnival magician El Gallo (Jonathon Morris) to "resolve" the "feud." After a long night during which the elaborate plan plays out and Matt is crowned a "hero," all's right with the world--that is, until the harsh light of day makes clear how less than ideal things really are.
_The_Fantasticks_ had long been considered unfilmable since it is typically performed on a bare stage with virtually no props. Since such minimalism is unthinkable for the big screen, Ritchie has opened up the play to the extreme, filming in full Panavision glory--all the better to capture Fred Murphy's gorgeous photography of the film's adopted setting of the '20s American Midwest. The stunning images, plus the reorchestrated score (adapted from Jones and Schmidt's original arrangements by Jonathan Tunick) gives simple scenes such as Luisa's big "I Want" song, "Much More," an epic quality that harkens back to the grand screen musicals of yesteryear.
While Ritchie adjusted a number of things in the translation to film, the one thing he curiously didn't weren't the performances. On one hand, this is a good thing; he employed new digital technology to capture the actors' singing live on set rather than lipsynch to a prerecorded track (the standard procedure for all other musical films). But the sense of intimacy achieved by the live vocals is cancelled out by the broad, stagy performance quality he coaxes from his cast. While a seasoned theater pro like Grey and the luminous ingenue Kelly are able to get away with some exaggerated mugging, such an approach proves nearly ruinous for the new kid on the block (in every sense), McIntyre. Luckily, his all-too-evident inexperience as an actor is compensated by his sweet rapport with Kelly.
It also helps that McIntyre, widely thought to be his former boy band's best singer, can indeed carry a tune, for after all the key to _The_Fantasticks_' enduring stage success are those memorable, hummable tunes. Just as the story is as flimsy and inconsequential as ever, the music--invigorated by the actors' spirited vocal performances--is still able to cast a magical spell. Unfortunately, in this day and age most people's society-nurtured cynicism has immunized them to the quiet and decidedly old school delights of a film like _The_Fantasticks_, which is much too modest to spur on a full-on revival of this type of movie musical (and, to no one's surprise, its box office returns have been soft at best). But for those who still bear a sense of that unabashedly innocent, almost naive romanticism, _The_Fantasticks_ presents an inviting opportunity to "try to remember" a cinematic art that has sadly been all but lost.
©2000 Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://www.mrbrownmovies.com CinemaReview Magazine: http://www.CinemaReview.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews