Love 'N Dancing (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:11
Fresh:2
Rotten:9
Average Rating:3.3/10
Theatrical Release:May 8, 2009 Limited
Synopsis:
Five years ago: Jake Mitchell (TOM MALLOY) is the defending World West Coast Swing Champion. He’s got everything going for him -- looks, personality, and style. He’s at the top of his game when...
Five years ago: Jake Mitchell (TOM MALLOY) is the defending World West Coast Swing Champion. He’s got everything going for him -- looks, personality, and style. He’s at the top of his game when he and his partner Corinne (NICOLA ROYSTON) are crowned for the second time, the unexpected winners at the World Swing Dance Championships. As the crowd cheers and the celebration begins, Jake appears uneasy. Did he really deserve to win? The music blasts and the bass is thumping…but Jake hears none of it. He feels it. Jake is completely deaf, due to an ear infection when he was a teenager. He learned how to dance by feeling the vibrations of the music. Now he feels something else….that perhaps the judges gave him the win out of sympathy.
Present day: Jessica Donovan’s (AMY SMART) life is boring. When she was younger, she was a dancer who had dreams of Broadway. Now she’s an English teacher for disinterested, upper class, middle school kids, and she’s dying to let loose. Her fiancé Kent (BILLY ZANE) is a workaholic who cares more about making money than making Jessica happy. At a friend’s wedding, Kent makes Jessica look foolish on the dance floor as another couple, arrogant because they’ve obviously been taking lessons, get all the applause.
Meanwhile, Jake Mitchell has moved on with his life, and now he’s a dance teacher who travels around the country doing motivational speaking to students about how his disability did not hold him back from achieving success. It’s at a school assembly where Jake and Jessica first meet. They have an instant connection…but there’s only one problem. Jake’s still in love with Corinne and perhaps always will be. And Corinne still knows exactly how to get under Jake’s skin; though she has a new fiancé and dancing partner, she drives Jake nuts with her flirtatious, competitive ways.
Jessica initially asks Jake to train her and Kent in West Coast Swing for their wedding, but Jake and Jessica are drawn closer when Kent’s non-stop job prevents him from going to the class. Jessica decides to continue taking lessons from Jake anyway…perhaps they can compete and (should be in) the World Championship of Swing in the Pro-Am division.
And they get better and better. They decide, at a dance party, to go for it all. Forget the Pro-Am; they want to try for the title that Jake felt he never deserved. But now the champions are all athletic 18 year olds who can defy gravity, and Jake is in his early thirties. To make matters worse, Corinne gets word that her old partner is in the game again, and what do you know…she’s interested in Jake again. Jake and Jessica must try to elude all obstacles, romantic and otherwise, to stay focused on the goal…winning the World Title, and winning each other.
--© Screen Media
Starring: Amy Smart, Tom Malloy, Billy Zane, Nicola Royston
Starring: Amy Smart, Tom Malloy, Billy Zane, Nicola Royston, Leila Arcieri, Caroline Rhea, Rachel Dratch
Director: Robert Iscove
Director: Robert Iscove
Screenwriter: Tom Malloy
Producer: Robert Royston, Sylvia Caminer, Tom Malloy
Composer: Bruce Robb
Studio: Screen Media
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Reviews for Love 'N Dancing
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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The bottom line is that a few pretty dances aren't enough substance to make for a fulfilling, or even moderately entertaining movie when the rest of the material is so weak. Full Review |
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I’d say Love ‘n Dancing felt like an after-school special about overcoming disabilities and being the best you can be, but I fear I’d be doing a disservice to after school specials. Full Review |
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From the acting, to the music, to most importantly, the dancing everything feels amateur in this film. Full Review |
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It is unfortunate when someone with a history of staging musical numbers and directing musical sequences can't make dialogue scenes flow. Full Review |
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Seems more like a dance studio's infomercial than a romantic comedy. Full Review |
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If you cut the extraneous parts of Love n' Dancing -- you know, all the ones except for the dancing scenes -- it might not be a half-bad movie. Full Review |
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Everyone moves beautifully, yet director Robert Iscove keeps such a coolly professional distance from the dancers that we never feel their heat. Full Review |
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The film starts out as an empowerment story, gravitates toward romantic drama, has bits of lame comedy, and, of course, there's the dancing. Something for everyone, presumably, just none of it very good. Full Review |
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Bland as its title, Love N' Dancing extends the cliches of the dance-and-romance genre -- so overplayed that it's targeted for a Wayans brothers spoof later this month -- to the world of West Coast Swing. Full Review |
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How did it wind up in theaters? Even as a limited release? That's a mystery far more intriguing than anything on screen. Full Review |
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Instantly likeable, especially if you like dancing and this originally jazz-derivative but now pop/rock driven style Full Review |
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