J-Lo: Talent's Vacuum

Though her performance in Steven Soderburgh's "Out of Sight" was nuanced and surprisingly good, everything that Jennifer Lopez has done since has been, well, crap. "The Wedding Planner", "Gigli", and my personal favorite offense of hers where she dragged down poor Ralph Fiennes, "Maid in Manhattan" are all testaments to her staggering lack of stage presence and ability. Her most recent foray into cinematic footnotes is her performance in "Shall We Dance", an unnecessary remake of a Japanese movie of the same title.

The Japanese version of "Shall We Dance" dealt with a man's struggle against the strictly enforced societal norms of Japanese life and his slowly growing happiness as he took up ballroom dancing. He is originally drawn into the dance hall after repeatedly seeing a mysterious and sad looking woman staring out of the school's windows as he rides the train home every night. The movie never becomes about a romantic relationship between the two, more a meeting of 2 lost souls who find comfort and strength in each other. The man stays with his wife and the woman goes on to fulfill her dancing destiny, each enriched by having met the other.

The American version of "Shall We Dance" tries to reach for all the quiet and gentle moments of the original, but ends up being loud and obvious. Richard Gere is serviceable as John Clark, a Chicago estate attorney who spends his life making up wills for other people and is slowly realizing at the end of the day his life needs something else. His wife played by Susan Sarandon seems to be more a character than the wife in the Japanese film, and overall she plays this 2 dimensional character as best she can. Night after night Clark rides the L home and passes by Miss Mitzi's Dance School and sees Jennifer Lopez, who stares blankly out the large picture windows of the school. One night he decides to go and do something about this far away woman and ends up enrolling in ballroom dance class.

Jennifer Lopez plays Paulina, a former dance competitor who harbors a secret that keeps her distant and separate. Lopez decides to play this sense of mystery as speaking quietly and pronouncing every syllable very distinctly. Her deep dark secret ends up being anti-climactic and she comes across as a bit of a diva in retrospect. However, there is one moment that redeems her slightly. In an effort to help him train for the big dance contest, Paulina stays after class one night and dances with Clark. This is the only point in the movie where J-Lo, keeping her trap shut, embodies who her character is aching to be. She is a trained dancer and Gere, who acquitted himself well in "Chicago", seems secure on his feet as well. It is less romantic than life affirming and remains the only real moment in the movie that struck a chord.

Overall, the dancing montages as Clark and his fellow dance students stop tripping over their own feet and become graceful, are usually amusing and occasionally touching. However, the cliches the movie embraces tinge the final product with some increasingly cringe-worthy moments. For example, the stereotypical homophobe who, in actuality, is gay has been overdone to the point of madness. Though the end of the film is less cliched than in the 90 minutes or so that came before, it still lacked the emotional punch of the original. A man finding himself for himself, than a man finding himself for his marriage seemed to be a much more interesting journey. You can be happy that a solid marriage remains solid, but self discovery is always more revelatory and exciting.