Review of Strictly Ballroom (1992) by Marissa K — 28 Jul 2014

It would be fairly easy to dismiss this as a Dirty Dancing rip-off; there are even a couple of shots in the montages that seem to be plucked directly from the 1987 dance classic. But, in his debut film, Baz Luhrman displays some of the details that would go on to become his signatures and lends a unique touch to this ugly-duckling tale of romance on the dance floor.

Paul Mercurio is practically electric as leading man Scott Hastings and Tara Morice (who also lends her voice to the film's version of Time After Time) is delightful as (just) Fran, the woman who accepts Scott just the way he is.

Set against the intense world of ballroom dancing, the characters are slightly wacky, but also believable as people for whom this is the only world that exists. The zooms, the close-ups, the color, these are all signposts of a Luhrman film and they're just ramping up here.

It's a bit like watching Bottle Rocket and knowing that Rushmore will follow. Both are debut films that sowed the seeds of these auteurs (Luhrman and Anderson) and yet, it's still the story that's the heart of it all, for now, not just the whimsy of great production design.

I saw this years and years ago, and have seen it a couple of times in the interim, but I just recently re-visited it (it's streaming on Netflix) and fell in love with it all over again. It's just exceedingly entertaining, with a bit of exaggerated wackiness, but nothing ever takes away from the moral of the story here: stop living your life in fear.