Thursday, March 13, 2014


Movie Review

Dance With Me (1998)

August 21, 1998

FILM REVIEW; Salsa's Would-Be Sabado Night Fever

Published: August 21, 1998

Randa Haines's likable mess of a movie ''Dance With Me'' wants so desperately to be the ''Saturday Night Fever'' of salsa that you can feel it huffing and puffing and straining its Achilles tendons to try to detonate the same mixture of sex, alienation and terpsichorean transcendence as the 1977 blockbuster that launched John Travolta into orbit. But despite plenty of smoke and fire, the big liftoff never arrives, and the climactic dance-contest sequence is a botched fizzle.

Aspiring to fill the shoes of the young John Travolta is Chayanne, a handsome, charismatic Puerto Rican pop singer and soap opera star who is the epitome of a tenderhearted, smoldering-eyed Latin American hunk. Chayanne plays Rafael Infante, an ambitious young Cuban who moves to Houston after the death of his mother to work as a handyman at a dance studio owned by an American named John Burnett (Kris Kristofferson).

John was a friend of Rafael's mother from the days when they danced together on a cruise ship. A gruff, cynical loner who is considering selling his studio and spending the rest of his life fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, John may or may not be Rafael's biological father. The question of paternity and the ambivalent bond between the two men is one of several themes the movie bungles terribly in its rush to cover too many dramatic bases too quickly.

The film's happiest surprise is the uninhibited performance of Vanessa L. Williams as Ruby, a dance studio teacher and single mother with whom Chayanne becomes instantly smitten. Ms. Williams, who usually appears bland and buttoned-up in her films, explodes joyously to life in the scenes in which Chayanne and Ruby tear up the floor at a local salsa club. Ms. Williams happens to be a superb dancer who consistently eclipses her co-star in versatility, grace and joie de vivre.

Chayanne is good at hoisting partners over his head, but as a less balletic ballroom dancer he seems terminally earthbound. He lacks the airy hauteur and kineticism of a human missile about to take off that performers as diverse as Fred Astaire, Michael Jackson, John Travolta and Patrick Swayze have brought to their dancing roles.

The movie insists that Rafael's untutored salsa dancing is superior to Ruby's more elegant studio technique because it is more ''authentic,'' but the visual evidence suggests the opposite. Ruby proves to be a much bigger influence on Rafael than he on her. And in the final dance contest sequence, set in Las Vegas, so many different Latin dance styles are thrown together in such rapid succession that any point the movie wanted to make about the rising importance of salsa is dissipated in a confusingly edited, suspense-free jumble.

''Dance With Me'' lacks the fluent, aloft-on-tiptoes momentum that a dance-oriented movie must have in order to sustain a mood of airy dreaminess. The dance sequences are awkwardly shoehorned into personal stories that are too tentative and lackadaisically developed to accumulate much weight.

Ruby and Rafael are both adrift in the world. She is an Army brat bringing up a young son who, like Rafael, is illegitimate. While Ruby is agonizing over whether or not to reunite with an abusive former partner with whom she stands a chance of winning championship dance contests, Rafael is brooding about his paternity, his future and whether or not he should return to Cuba. The movie isn't helped by a wooden performance from Mr. Kristofferson, who squints so much he seems barely to be making eye contact with anyone.

Although ''Dance With Me'' disappoints on almost every level, it still leaves you mildly elated, and its rich, percolating soundtrack touches on a wide range of Latin American pop styles, with Ruben Blades's song ''Patria'' a particular high point.

''Dance With Me'' is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has sexual situations and strong language.


Directed by Randa Haines; written by Daryl Matthews; director of photography, Fred Murphy; edited by Lisa Fruchtman; music by Michael Convertino; choreography by Mr. Matthews and Liz Curtis; production designer, Waldemar Kalinowski; produced by Lauren C. Weissman, Shinya Egawa and Ms. Haines; released by Columbia Pictures Running time: 126 minutes. This film is rated PG.

WITH: Vanessa L. Williams (Ruby), Chayanne (Rafael), Kris Kristofferson (John) and Joan Plowright (Bea).

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