CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

drumax-759-417828 I am not a film maker or film student, just like movies and watch way more than I should. This is not the type of movie I would generally watch but because I like Robert Carlyle I gave it a chance. I am glad I did.I forgive the fact there are no great dancers in the film as it isn't about dance and most in the classes are students, children, older...in essence, they aren't dancers and most are probably not there to become expert dancers.It IS a movie that looks to tug at the heartstrings and manipulate the emotions but most movies are trying to illicit a response, an emotional reaction, of some kind. This movie did a good job.Personally I had a hard time investing emotionally in this movie but it gradually weakened my resolve and I started caring about the characters.Indeed it is an older short film encapsulated in an updated shell and secondary story but to be honest, the characters (and a few were real characters), anachronisms and all, were still just as interesting and was worked into the new overarching story quite well.Any weakness of this story, this project, was ably work around by a great cast that did seem to immerse themselves in their roles. Its not a perfect film, it overtly tugs at the heartstrings, sappy, some comedy. I recommend it but it certainly isn't going appeal to all.I wish they had credited 'freeway' the boombox button pusher...it was a funny touch, one of a few minor quirky characters both modern and flashback, little touches that added to the enjoyment of the movie.

Richard Scott I never saw this in the theatre but caught it recently on STARZ. Like Steve, I'm a Southern California boy(Ventura-born)and lived in Pasadena for eight years. But this film touched me as a There-But-For-The-Grace-Of-God story.I grew up in Northern California and saw my wife for the first time on her mother's 51st birthday, Feb. 17,1968, crossing the intersection of Telegraph and Durant Aves in Berkeley. I was not quite 14 and she was dressed in a black silk top hat, long black velvet cape and dress. That girl became the physical template for every girl I'd ever be attracted to.Over the next 21 years, I went through junior high and high school, joined the Navy and hunted the Great Steel Whales, got married and had two children with a woman I knew I didn't love. I was working in San Francisco for A.T.&T. in the 1980's and started riding the Vallejo ferry into San Francisco in the summer of 1989, the same company my Dad had worked for as a deck hand at the time I saw her. Although I didn't know it at the time, the first person I met on the boat that day was her, 21 years later, sitting in my favorite seat outside.We started talking and found out we were both budding writers. Over the next few months, we read each other's work and started writing a spy novel together. We were also both trapped in bad marriages. Then three things happened to me in the last months on 1989. The first was cutting off a killer called the 580 shooter on the Oakland Freeway one midnight going to work. Then 6 weeks later the Loma Prieta Quake hit and while she was on the pier, I headed back into work and kept long-distance phone service working through the emergency. By this time she had confessed her feelings to me and I was hit out of left field. While I processed that, I had to realize that the only time I looked forward to in the day was the time I spent with her. The final straw occurred on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.They had repaired the cable cars by then and we got free cable cars with the ferry pass. We would walk to the California Street cable car from the ferry, hop aboard and ride up to Kearney St. where I would get off. She would continue up to Stockton St. where she would get off. That Wednesday, my daughter was sick so I stayed home to care for her. So, the cable car didn't stop at Kearney and made the light. Forty seconds later, a 50-ton construction crane collapsed into the intersection of California and Kearney, killing six people. When we talked next, we left together. It wasn't until a month later that she told me she used to hang out in Berkeley in the same place, time and wearing the same clothes I had seen her in that day. And if we hadn't had the courage to stand up for love, I would have never known it.That was 19 years ago and we have never been apart since. This film reminds me of what might have happened had I not had the courage that day. The fact that I've driven many of the streets on which the story is set and recognize most of the locations is a special bonus for me.

shelshula This is such a good movie.There is so much tragedy in the lives of the characters and yet they seek comfort and happiness at the Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School.It is so lovely watching these characters trying to recapture or rebuild the happiness in their lives.Robert Carlyle is his extraordinary self. You simply can't go wrong watching a movie with him in it. Marissa Tomei is wonderful as a fragile flower. Mary Steenburgen is a delight. and John Goodman...Please watch this film.

nycritic Viewed as it is, without the cynicism that comes with having seen too many movies both good and bad, MARILYN HOTCHKISS BALLROOM DANCE AND CHARM SCHOOL is an affecting picture about disaffected, bruised people whose destinies converge in this little motif of a tableau. An expanded concept from a short film of the same name that was released in 1990, this is a very romantic (i.e. "escapist") take on lost love, and the intent to rekindle it in a time and place where dreams have been lost, people have outgrown their innocence, and the only thing lingering over their heads is a small sliver of hope to return to that safe haven.The movie cuts between time zones in a style closer to the fragmented storytelling of Guillermo Arriaga's 21 GRAMS and THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, and changes palettes according to each: blue for the fateful encounter between Robert Carlyle's and John Goodman's character, pastel for the flashback sequence where we see the title character, and a more balanced tone for the story as it eventually unfolds from Carlyle's point of view. It's a technique that works in unraveling the parallels of the characters as children, and seeing them now, as broken adults.It almost becomes a thriller in a way that is less dependent on an intentional story within a story. Carlyle's quiet baker, trying to locate Goodman's childhood sweetheart Lisa, stumbles on another situation where another shy girl, played by Marisa Tomei, is being brutalized by her half-brother, played by Donnie Wahlberg, and discovers a second chance at love. All the while, the specter of this ideal Lisa hanging over the ballroom and Marienne Hotchkiss' sensual-robotic commands, which makes her actual introduction late into the story as a bitter woman all the more heartbreaking. Camryn Manheim plays out all the anger and sadness into her brief scene where she at first pretends not to know what the hell this stranger is doing at her door, and later, alone, reveals to us her pain.An imperfect movie in the way it decides to resolve supporting conflicts and uses the voice-over narration of John Goodman to near unbelievable levels, but again, this is an escapist feature length film made with what seems to be genuine love for the material and devoid of all manipulation.