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Plot Summary
An all star cast heads up Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School, a heartfelt, nostalgic and gently humorous story about a chance encounter in which one man's dreams become another man's destiny, starring Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, Robert Carlyle, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Astin, Donnie Whalberg, Danny DeVito and John Goodman. Frank (Robert Carlyle), a baker by trade, has been consumed by grief over his wife's death. But everything changes when he pulls his bread truck over on a rural highway to help a dying stranger entangled in a car wreck. In the last moments of his life, Steve (John Goodman) tells Frank that he was on his way to visit a woman he hasn't seen in forty years. Before Steve dies, Frank promises to keep the meeting with his long lost love. Frank's quest to find Steve's love, Lisa (Camryn Manheim), takes him to Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School.
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Director
Screenwriters
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
22%- Reviews Counted: 59
- Fresh: 13
- Rotten: 46
- Average Rating: 4.7/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Rotten: About all that unifies the movie is its inclination to turn little people's dreams into limply 'affectionate' camp.
Rotten: Too cute, too transparent, too precious and ultimately too much.
Rotten: The picture trivializes the characters, hinting at depths it can't depict, aiming at a profundity of feeling it can't begin to reach.
Rotten: 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.
Customer Reviews
One of the best unheard of movies
To say this movie is a little known gem is an understatement. The reviews you can find on it talk about the editing and the story but to me that is what made this movie.
The story is told from the point of view of the two main characters John Goodman and Robert Carlyle. Neither are your typical hollywood leading men but here they show why they should be.
John Goodman is a man who gets paroled the same day he promised to meet his childhood sweet heart 40 years in the future at Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. He sees it as fate that they were meant to be together and nothing will stand in his way. He literally steals a car from the prison parking lot to make his date.
Robert Carlyle is a man whose wife has committed suicide and he is trying to cope by going to group counseling.
When fate brings these two men together one must rise from the ashes of his life to ensure a man he barely knows keeps his promise and along the way finds some hope of his own.
The strong points are the acting of John Goodman, Robert Carlyle and in a surprise small but powerful role by Donnie Wahlberg.
The bad points are the flashback sequences to John Goodman's child hood. While they are necessary to the story telling they tended to be too long.
It may be sappy and contrived at times but it also shows that we all have our demons, what makes us better people is how we face them.
Love this movie!
I have no idea why this movie has no reviews. Yeah, it's less well known, but it's really good! It's funny and sad and heartwarming all at once...really puts a smile on your face.
Nuanced and haunting
I enjoyed this film very much. I found it wonderfully paced, with great characters and emotion. i think back on it often. Very Vivid and raw performances.
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- $12.99
- Genre: Drama
- Released: 2006
- © 2005 Charm School Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved.