Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School Reviews

A surprisingly-moving message movie about love and redemption filled with sentimental and transformational moments leading to tearjerker of a finale.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Utterly charming.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

... slight and slurry, like a champagne buzz.

Full Review | Original Score: 85/100

Yes, it's shamelessly sentimental, and fairly predictable, but it has a big heart and an even bigger cast.

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Predictable and decidedly old-fashioned in its sensibility, the film is likely to win over audiences if not critics.

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

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.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

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.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

Forgive the occasional forays into schmaltz-land as Marilyn Hotchkiss shows us how to dance, and love, in spite of it all.

| Original Score: 7/10

Marilyn Hotchkiss demonstrates that the same old construct can be made thrillingly fresh with the right components.

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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.

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Shows how dancing becomes a route to personal transformation for a man mired in mourning.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Yet another ballroom dancing movie presents dance as a universal balm that heals life's problems in this mildly inspired dramatic comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: C

Why would Frank drop everything to embark on this lunatic mission? Well, the answer is simple. If he didn't, there would be no movie - and perhaps that wouldn't have been such a bad thing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

A miscast hodgepodge of a genre stew.

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Strong performances and moving themes are drowned in a sea of sentimentality.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

I could believe almost nothing of this under-written, over-emoted saga.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10

the entire movie is ridiculous

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

This is a wildly ill-conceived jumble, and not even its impressive cast can rescue it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

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