One Last Dance (movie), September 10, 2005, my mom's living room

Like The Company, I ran across this movie at Blockbuster, having never heard of it before. Of course I recognized Patrick Swayze, and my mom recognized his wife, Lisa Niemi. They both star in the film and were involved in writing, directing, and producing it. While the plot of the movie is Oscar-worthy compared to The Company, it still is somewhat predicatable and forced. But it's a dance film, so that's not the point, or should I say pointe. By the way, one exception to that rule is "Save the Last Dance;" it may succeed where others fail because the story line doesn't include numerous performances and therefore doesn't rely on them to keep the audience's interest. The plot line in this film revolves around a gala performance the company puts on after the artistic director's death (or stroke - I wasn't paying that much attention) in order to save the company from bankruptcy. The choreography comes from Alonzo King (Alonzo King's LINES ballet), Patsy Swayze, Dwight Roden(?), and Doug Varone (Doug Varone and Dancers). It also appears that many of the dancers, who are all first-rate, come from the two companies. Except for a few scenes where Patrick Swayze is performing his inner struggle manifest as dance, the choreography is quite appealing. Why does every film about ballet have an arrogant asshole of an artistic director? If that's the way the ballet world is, and I suspect it's true more often than not, I'm glad I didn't choose dance as a career. Do such people really think that abuse leads to the best performances? Maybe the best technique, but not the best art. I wanted my mom to see Shall We Dance (the American Version - mom's not into foreign films), so I watched it again with her. I was rather surprised how many more of the steps I recognized after only a month and a half.