Yes, it's shamelessly sentimental, and fairly predictable, but it has a big heart and an even bigger cast.
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:59
Fresh:13
Rotten:46
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Clumsily staged and brimming with melodrama and trite self-help cliches, this dance movie stays stuck at amateur level.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for mature situations and language.
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Mar 31, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $182,515
Synopsis: MARILYN HOTCHKISS' BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL begins with a fated meeting, as Frank (Robert Carlyle) pulls over to aid a car-crash victim, Steve (John Goodman), who is slowly dying by the... MARILYN HOTCHKISS' BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL begins with a fated meeting, as Frank (Robert Carlyle) pulls over to aid a car-crash victim, Steve (John Goodman), who is slowly dying by the side of the road. Frank is still coming to terms with his wife's suicide, so when Steve spins him a story about the dance school of the title, he decides to attend classes himself. Steve informs Frank that he was in love with a girl named Lisa (Camryn Manheim), who danced at the school when he was a 12-year-old boy. Now, some 40 years later, Frank was on his way to the school to meet her again, hoping to rekindle their flame. Director Randall Miller (CLASS ACT) neatly divides the story into three parts, providing flashbacks to flesh out Steve's story, showing Frank's desperate attempts--along with a paramedic team--to keep Steve alive, and illustrating what happens when Frank makes his way to the school. As the story pings back and forth, Frank arrives at the school intending to tell Lisa what happened to Steve, but fails to find her. What Frank does find, however, is Meredith (Marisa Tomei), a woman he hopes will fill in the aching gap left by the death of his wife. As Frank slowly falls in love with Meredith while continuing his search for Lisa, the film gently arcs through some sentimental material that should appeal to viewers who enjoy a good tearjerker. [More]
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Donnie Wahlberg
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Donnie Wahlberg, David Paymer, Danny De Vito, John Goodman, Camryn Manheim, Jody Savin
Director: Randall Miller
Director: Randall Miller
Producer: Eilleen Craft, Morris Rushkin
Composer: Mark Adler
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films
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Reviews for Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School
Shows how dancing becomes a route to personal transformation for a man mired in mourning.
Predictable and decidedly old-fashioned in its sensibility, the film is likely to win over audiences if not critics.
A surprisingly-moving message movie about love and redemption filled with sentimental and transformational moments leading to tearjerker of a finale.
While it's at times too melodramatic and formulaic to be entirely successful, it still holds some appeal; its very amateurishness is what makes it charming.
The point of the film is that anything is possible when you open your heart to new experiences. Simplistic, for sure. Simple-minded, maybe. But the feel-good pleasures in a movie with this much positive thinking are undeniable.
Forgive the occasional forays into schmaltz-land as Marilyn Hotchkiss shows us how to dance, and love, in spite of it all.
Marilyn Hotchkiss demonstrates that the same old construct can be made thrillingly fresh with the right components.
As absorbingly weird and dark and sad as the film becomes, it still labors against jumpy construction, an irritating variety of visual styles and film stocks, and a crowded story.
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School may stumble at times, but at least it gets out on the dance floor and has a good time.
That the film was itself borne out of risk invests its message with an honesty and an authenticity more than sufficient to offset its flaws.
You've always suspected that going to dance class and charm school wouldn't be a lot of fun. Now a movie has come along that proclaims the truth: You were right all along.
For much of its length, Hotchkiss verges on archness: If it eventually wins us over, it's in large part thanks to the terrific cast Miller has assembled.
Not only are the shifts in time unclear, but the film lacks a stable emotional tone.
Beyond Wahlberg's deft moves, School's dancing is leaden, not charming, and the only challenge is enduring the film's lumbering progress until it finally clicks at the end.
What started out as a A Christmas Story-like film from a child's point of view somehow became a glum midlife tragedy that would do well between Oprah reruns on Lifetime.
Yet another ballroom dancing movie presents dance as a universal balm that heals life's problems in this mildly inspired dramatic comedy.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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