Strictly Ballroom Movie Review
Old-time film buffs describe their primal experiences at local Bijous of the ‘30s with such intense passion: “And I paid my dime every day and went to see 42nd Street or Golddiggers of 1933 or Flying Down to Rio over and over and over again; it was magic.” Although movies with that sort of repeat value are indeed rare, we have found one, and so, apparently, have other romance-starved film buffs. Strictly Ballroom made its first U.S. appearance at the Mill Valley Film Festival in the fall of 1992. Not even a surfeit of critical euphoria prepared me for the night I first saw Strictly Ballroom, a classic example of the picture that F. Scott Fitzgerald once described as “the-little-girl-wanting-a-piece-of-candy original; our attention must be called with sharp novelty to the fact that she wants it.” The girl in Strictly Ballroom is Fran, the inexpressibly plain dance student played by Tara Morice, and the candy is her big chance to turn into a swan and compete with a sexy open amateur at the Pan Pacific dance competition. The open amateur is Paul Mercurio as Scott Hastings, who is, quite literally, the most exciting dance personality to emerge onscreen since the Golden Age of the Hollywood musical. Unfortunately for film buffs, Mercurio headlines the Sydney Dance Company in Australia and is unlikely to leave it for a movie genre that has no real future. (He was wasted in Exit to Eden, and fared better in TNT's Joseph, but the Australian-made Back of Beyond went straight to cable.) It's a shame, because Mercurio is also a remarkable actor, ideally conveying his character's conflicting emotions. He wants to win, but he wants to dance his own steps; and he wants to win with flashy Tina Sparkle, but he wants to dance HIS way with the adoring Fran; and he doesn't want to wind up like his whipped father, but his father's approval is the only thing that can set him free. Who cares about the shenanigans that obsess all these ballroom fanatics? Thanks to director Baz Luhrmann and a superb cast (the late Pat Thomsen and Barry Otto are especially memorable as Scott's parents), WE care, even if we can't dance to save our lives. Luhrmann's wry understanding of the impact of every frame of his film is breathtaking. At one point, when Scott's shrill partner Liz screams that she wants Ken Railings to walk into the studio to say that HIS partner (Pam Short) has broken both her legs and he wants to dance with HER, Luhrmann with two quick, sure cuts, shows us both the stylized accident and Ken Railings’ word-for-word delivery of Liz's implausible projection. That Luhrmann is able to reinvent and revitalize this technique throughout the film, even in dance sequences that are already saturated with highly charged energy, is one of the reasons why Strictly Ballroom is as much of a delight to watch the twelfth time around as the first.
1992 (PG) 94m/C AU Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Pat Thomsen, Barry Otto, Gia Carides, Peter Whitford, John Hannan, Sonia Kruger-Tayler, Kris McQuade, Pip Mushin, Leonie Page, Antonio Vargas, Armonia Benedito; D: Baz Luhrmann; W: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce; C: Steve Mason; M: David Hirshfelder. Australian Film Institute ‘92: Best Costume Design, Best Director (Luhrmann), Best Film, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Otto), Best Supporting Actress (Thomsen), Best Writing; Nominations: Golden Globe Awards ‘94: Best Film—Musical/Comedy. VHS, LV, Closed Caption