We said when we saw the preview months ago that it would be Coach Carter sans Samuel L. Jackson but plus ballroom dancing, which it essentially was. It even had the same guy whose life is getting him down but he turns it around in the end — I don’t mean the character was the same, I mean that the actor was literally the same guy.
We had several lame moments that went something like “Ooh, that girl got to touch / dance with Antonio Banderas.” He’s kind of really awesome and I have an inclination to put on Four Rooms now.
Toronto was yet again the stand in for New York, which always drives me nuts because it’s completely obvious to anyone who has spent five minutes in both cities. You can throw in as many stock shots of people bustling around NYC as you want in between scenes, but it will never disguise Toronto. The best was when two characters met up in the subway station, it was like the set dresser thought “If we slap up a sign that says ’103rd Street’ NO ONE WILL NOTICE IT’S NOT ACTUALLY 103rd STREET.” Oh, and slap an American flag on the side of the subway, that will disguise it too. [They did use a non-TTC bus for one shot, which I'm assuming they did because TTC buses are so freaking recognizeable.]
Anyway, the real reason to see a movie like this is for the dancing because when it comes down to it, watching people who know how to dance actually dance is always enjoyable.
Audrey really loved it and got mad at me in the car on the way home because I wasn’t saying anything. “You can talk about it, you know, I won’t judge you!” I liked it well enough, I just don’t have all that much to say about it.