''Shall We Dance?'' is a 2004 American
romantic comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film directed by
Peter Chelsom
Peter Chelsom (born 20 April 1956) is a British film director, writer, and actor. He has directed such films as Hector and the Search for Happiness (film), ''Hector and the Search for Happiness'', Serendipity (film), ''Serendipity'', and ''Shal ...
and starring
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Heaven'' (1978). He came to prominence with ...
,
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...
, and
Susan Sarandon
Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...
. It is a remake of the 1996 Japanese
film of the same name.
Plot
John Clark is a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
with a charming wife, Beverly, and a loving family, who nevertheless feels that
something is missing as he makes his way every day through the city. Each evening on his commute home through
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, John sees a beautiful woman staring with a lost expression through the window of a dance studio. Haunted by her gaze, John impulsively jumps off the train one night, and signs up for
ballroom dancing
Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television.
...
lessons, hoping to meet her.
At first, it seems like a mistake. His teacher turns out not to be the woman in the window, Paulina, but the studio's older namesake, Miss Mitzi, and John proves to be just as clumsy as his equally clueless classmates Chic and Vern on the dance-floor. Even worse, when he does meet Paulina, she icily tells John she hopes he has come to the studio to seriously study dance and not to look for a date. But, as his lessons continue, John falls in love with dancing. Keeping his new obsession from his family and co-workers, John feverishly trains for Chicago's biggest dance competition. His friendship with Paulina blossoms, as his enthusiasm rekindles her own lost passion for dance. But the more time John spends away from home, the more his wife Beverly becomes suspicious. She hires a
private investigator
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
to find out what John is doing, but when she finds out the truth, she chooses to discontinue the investigation and not invade her husband's privacy.
John is partnered with Bobbie for the competition, although his friend Link steps in to do the
Latin dance
Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that mainly originated in Latin America.
The category of Latin dances in the international dancesport competi ...
s. Link and Bobbie do well in the Latin dances, and while John and Bobbie's waltz goes well, John sees his wife and daughter in the crowd during the quickstep, and is distracted by trying to find them. He and Bobbie fall and are disqualified, and John and Beverly argue in the parking garage. John quits dancing, to everyone's dismay.
Paulina, having been inspired by John to take up competing again, is leaving to go to Europe, and is having a going-away party at the dance studio. She sends John an invitation, but he is not convinced to go until his wife leaves out a pair of dancing shoes that she bought him. He goes and meets Beverly at work, convinces her that while he loves dancing, he still loves her just as much, and he teaches her to dance. They go to the party, and John and Paulina have one last dance before she leaves.
The end scene shows everyone afterwards: Link and Bobbie are now together; Chic, who was actually gay, dances at a club with his partner; Miss Mitzi finds a new partner, and they are happy together; John and Beverly are happier than before and dance in the kitchen; Vern, newly married to his fiancée, dances with her at their wedding; the private investigator that Beverly hired, Devine, starts up dance lessons; and Paulina, with a new partner, competes at the
Blackpool Dance Festival
The 8-day Blackpool Dance Festival is the world's first and most famous annual ballroom dance competition of international significance, held in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, England since 1920. It is also the largest bal ...
, the competition that she had lost the year before.
Cast
Soundtrack
#
"Sway" -
The Pussycat Dolls
The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the burlesque troupe ...
# "Santa Maria" (Del Buen Ayre) -
Gotan Project
Gotan Project is a musical group based in Paris (France), consisting of musicians Eduardo Makaroff (Argentine), Philippe Cohen Solal (French) and Christoph H. Müller (Swiss), a former member of Touch El Arab.Madlen Albrecht ''Le développemen ...
# "Happy Feet" -
John Altman
# "
España cañí
"España cañí" (meaning "Gypsy Spain" in Spanish) is a famous instrumental Spanish piece of pasodoble music by Pascual Marquina Narro (1873–1948). The song was written around 1923 and first recorded in 1926. In English it is also known as the ...
" - John Altman
# "I Wanna (Shall We Dance)" - Gizelle D'Cole
# "
Perfidia
"Perfidia" (Spanish for " perfidy", meaning ''faithlessness'', ''treachery'' or ''betrayal'') is a 1939 Spanish-language song written by Mexican composer and arranger Alberto Domínguez (1906–1975). The song is sung from the perspectiv ...
" - John Altman
# "
Under The Bridges Of Paris
"Under the Bridges of Paris" is a 1913 popular song with music written by Vincent Scotto, the original French lyrics (entitled "''Sous les ponts de Paris''") by Jean Rodor (1913), and English sections of lyrics added by Dorcas Cochran (1952) res ...
" - John Altman
# "
Moon River
"Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (film), Breakfast at Tiffany's'', winning an Academy Award for Best Original ...
" - John Altman
# "Andalucia" - John Altman
# "
The Book Of Love" -
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...
# "The L Train" -
Gabriel Yared
Gabriel Yared (Arabic: غبريال يارد; born 7 October 1949) is a Lebanese-French composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Yared scored the French films ''Betty Blue'' and ''Camille Claude ...
# "
I Could Have Danced All Night
"I Could Have Danced All Night" is a song from the musical ''My Fair Lady'', with music written by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner,[Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is an English jazz-pop singer, songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. He has recorded nine stu ...]
# "Wonderland" -
Rachel Fuller
Rachel Fuller (born 24 July 1973) is a British musician. She is a successful independent pop music artist, a composer, and occasional collaborator with her husband rock musician Pete Townshend.
Early life
Born in Ipswich, England, Fuller late ...
# "Shall We Dance?" - Gotan Project
#
"Let's Dance" -
Mýa
Mya Marie Harrison (; born October 10, 1979), (stylized as Mýa), is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Born into a musical family, she studied ballet, jazz, and tap dance as a child. Initially, Mýa began her career as a VJ ...
Release
Box office
The film debuted on October 15, 2004, grossing $11,783,467 in its opening weekend, placing fourth at the North American box office. Despite its 27% decline in gross earnings, it rose to the third spot the following week. The film ran for 133 days, grossing $57,890,460 in the United States and $112,238,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $170,128,460.
Reception
''Shall We Dance?'' received a 47% approval rating from
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on reviews from 158 critics. The consensus states: "The cast is warmly appealing, but with the loss of cultural context and addition of big-name celebrities, this American version loses the nuances of the original."
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, stating "I enjoyed the Japanese version so much I invited it to my Overlooked Film Festival a few years ago, but this remake offers pleasures of its own."
Roger Ebert review
/ref>
Title
The original Japanese film had a question mark in its title, and the publicity poster for this film also includes it. However, the actual film titles on the US film appear as simply "Shall We Dance", leading to some online sources, including IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
, referring to it without showing the question mark. The inclusion of the question mark serves to distinguish these two films from the 1937 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film ''Shall We Dance Shall We Dance may refer to:
Films
* ''Shall We Dance'' (1937 film), a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical
* ''Shall We Dance?'' (1996 film), a Japanese film about ballroom dancing
* ''Shall We Dance?'' (2004 film), an American remake of the ...
''.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
2004 films
2004 romantic comedy-drama films
2000s American films
2000s dance films
2000s English-language films
American dance films
American remakes of Japanese films
American romantic comedy-drama films
Ballroom dancing films
Comedy film remakes
Drama film remakes
Films about dance competitions
Films directed by Peter Chelsom
Films scored by Gabriel Yared
Films set in Blackpool
Films set in Chicago
Films shot in Chicago
Films shot in Winnipeg
Films with screenplays by Audrey Wells
Romance film remakes