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Movies / On DVD / Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School

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Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (2006)

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Reviews Counted:59

Fresh:13

Rotten:46

Average Rating:4.7/10

Consensus: Clumsily staged and brimming with melodrama and trite self-help cliches, this dance movie stays stuck at amateur level.

Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for mature situations and language.

Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:25-08-2006

Synopsis: MARILYN HOTCHKISS' BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL begins with a fated meeting, as Frank (Robert Carlyle) pulls over to aid a car-crash victim, Steve (John Goodman), who is slowly dying by the... MARILYN HOTCHKISS' BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL begins with a fated meeting, as Frank (Robert Carlyle) pulls over to aid a car-crash victim, Steve (John Goodman), who is slowly dying by the side of the road. Frank is still coming to terms with his wife's suicide, so when Steve spins him a story about the dance school of the title, he decides to attend classes himself. Steve informs Frank that he was in love with a girl named Lisa (Camryn Manheim), who danced at the school when he was a 12-year-old boy. Now, some 40 years later, Frank was on his way to the school to meet her again, hoping to rekindle their flame. Director Randall Miller (CLASS ACT) neatly divides the story into three parts, providing flashbacks to flesh out Steve's story, showing Frank's desperate attempts--along with a paramedic team--to keep Steve alive, and illustrating what happens when Frank makes his way to the school. As the story pings back and forth, Frank arrives at the school intending to tell Lisa what happened to Steve, but fails to find her. What Frank does find, however, is Meredith (Marisa Tomei), a woman he hopes will fill in the aching gap left by the death of his wife. As Frank slowly falls in love with Meredith while continuing his search for Lisa, the film gently arcs through some sentimental material that should appeal to viewers who enjoy a good tearjerker. [More]

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Donnie Wahlberg

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Donnie Wahlberg, David Paymer, Danny De Vito, John Goodman, Camryn Manheim, Jody Savin

Director: Randall Miller

Director: Randall Miller
Producer: Eilleen Craft, Morris Rushkin
Composer: Mark Adler
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films

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Reviews for Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School

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21 - 40 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 >> >|
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The sort of cloying, sentimental heart-tugger that would be more at home on network television than the big screen.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
04/21/06
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Marilyn Hotchkiss... is a bit device driven as it flashes back and forth from Frank's lonely life to the accident that will change him forever

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/13/06
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Fine actors and acting do not compensate for a script with too many flaws.

Full Review Source: Kaplan vs. Kaplan | comment Comment
04/08/06
Jeanne Kaplan
Jeanne Kaplan
Kaplan vs. Kaplan

Yes, it's shamelessly sentimental, and fairly predictable, but it has a big heart and an even bigger cast.

Full Review Source: Kaplan vs. Kaplan | comment Comment
04/08/06
David Kaplan
David Kaplan
Kaplan vs. Kaplan

Predictable and decidedly old-fashioned in its sensibility, the film is likely to win over audiences if not critics.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
04/08/06
James Greenberg
James Greenberg
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

While it's at times too melodramatic and formulaic to be entirely successful, it still holds some appeal; its very amateurishness is what makes it charming.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
04/07/06
Moira MacDonald
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times

The thing is so clumsily scored and staged, so filled with banal self-help homilies, so predictable and ordinary and flat, that what should have been a quick glide around the floor becomes a slog.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
04/07/06
Shawn Levy
Shawn Levy
Oregonian

Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School may stumble at times, but at least it gets out on the dance floor and has a good time.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
04/07/06
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News

The film moves like a newbie following a diagram of arrows and shoes and counting out loud.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
04/07/06
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post

It's been simultaneously overwritten and underdirected by Randall Miller, who has turned his sweet 16-year-old short film into a syrupy, long-faced drama.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
04/07/06
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe

two cliches and a bit of nostalgia all crashing against each other

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/07/06
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Not only are the shifts in time unclear, but the film lacks a stable emotional tone.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
04/06/06
Bill White
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Think about this. You liked a schoolmate when you were 8, and for 40 years have focused on this reunion. Are you crazy?

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
04/06/06
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What started out as a A Christmas Story-like film from a child's point of view somehow became a glum midlife tragedy that would do well between Oprah reruns on Lifetime.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
04/06/06
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Wildly inconsistent in tone and point of view, torn between grim and sitcom-silly acting styles, slathered with a frosting of pop-psych self-help clichés, it's the film equivalent of the jarring car crash that sets the story in motion.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
04/06/06
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

As absorbingly weird and dark and sad as the film becomes, it still labors against jumpy construction, an irritating variety of visual styles and film stocks, and a crowded story.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
04/06/06
Tasha Robinson
Tasha Robinson
AV Club

Too cute, too transparent, too precious and ultimately too much.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
04/06/06
Sid Smith
Sid Smith
Chicago Tribune

About all that unifies the movie is its inclination to turn little people's dreams into limply 'affectionate' camp.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
04/05/06
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Forgive the occasional forays into schmaltz-land as Marilyn Hotchkiss shows us how to dance, and love, in spite of it all.

Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | comment Comment
04/03/06
Ron Wilkinson
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

Good performances, good actors. Kind of a terrible story.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
04/03/06
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
 
 
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