After over a month of introspection and hubby's action movies, it was time for a feel-good movie. Rotten Tomatoes panned it, but we took a chance.
Plot: A lawyer with a perfect-but-busy family is feeling glum. Bored, tired. Lacking joy. He sees a dance teacher staring out of her studio, looking like he feels. He wants her company; he wants to make her feel better. He ends up taking the singles ballroom dancing lessons. It makes him happy. Eventually, it makes everyone happy.
The happiness found in dancing becomes a metaphor for several things -- enjoying life, wanting more, not letting one loss get in the way of enjoying the rest of your life, knowing what you want out of life, being yourself, being with others, being with one special other, taking the time to do things with people you care about.
There are some good lines about about why we want to be with someone, and that it's ok to want more. I especially like how everyone has a different interpretation of why he didn't tell his wife about his dancing.
I'd have liked to see more of Vern's romance.
Overall, the movie worked for me. It made me feel good -- a gentle sort of good. It didn't have me sobbing or rolling in the aisles or clutching my seat, but I left the theatre pressed up against hubby and happy to be with him.
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Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
- Viktor E. Frankl
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