Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School (2005)

This is the sort of movie millions of people love because it pushes all the right buttons at all the right times, and it pushes them hard. It seems real enough that they feel like it is talking directly to them personally, and yet it is unreal enough to create in them a wide range of intense emotional reactions within a relatively short time. The vast majority of reviews here prove that the formula works like a charm for a lot of people. If you are one of them, you will love this movie as much as those reviewers did. But this kind of movie has the opposite effect on me, and since there may be a few others like me out there, it is worth giving my reaction to it too.I am allergic to the heavyhanded emotional manipulation movies like this use to get the response I just described. To me it rings as false as a three dollar bill. The culprit is the screenplay, which goes for the emotional jugular in every scene, making every word, every action by every actor so fraught with emotion that I begin to feel suffocated. The result for me is an experience that is neither believable - at all - nor moving in any positive or pleasurable way. It leaves me feeling manipulated and cheated. A lot of great acting talent was squandered on this tripe.I do not mean to offend those who love this movie but to caution those who - like me - do not react well to emotional manipulation. I love being genuinely, spontaneously moved emotionally by a movie, but the heavyhanded technique used here backfires on me.

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.

Found this gem in Hollywood Video today. What a sweet, uplifting film. Watched the movie, followed by the director's cut. (And, yes, Elden, I listened until all three of you stopped talking.) It's always helpful to know the director's intention after seeing a film. Makes for a more complete experience. The director's point of view often helps to verify I didn't miss key points in the story. This was one of the best director's reviews because Randall Miller and friends explained the variations in lighting between three different parts of the film, and discussed how they were able to assemble such an impressive cast. Loved the film. Bravo!

Do you like long, slow, artsy-fartsy movies with lots of black & white flashbacks that go on forever ? Then you'll love this one.There are some good actors here, but this film represents their worst work. John Goodman's performance, as an accident victim, is lost. He looks about twice as obese as I remember him, and his face crowds the screen. Frankly, I couldn't get through it, and Donna Grayson's previous comments are completely inexplicable. She must have been involved in the production and is trying to beat the dead horse of promoting the film.Avoid this film like the plague, and you'll be a much happier person.