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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 0043396151628
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Release Date: July 04, 2006
Running Time: 104 minutes
Sales Rank: 35348
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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.System Requirements:Run Time: 103 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396151628 Manufacturer No: 15162
Amazon.com:
When lonely hearts want to connect, is there any better way, really, than dancing? Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School is a sweet indie valentine to dance, and to the connection of lost, broken souls. The stellar cast is led by English Everyguy Robert Carlyle, a widower who believes he's fulfilling a dying man's last wish--to find a long-lost love--by showing up at a Thursday night dance class. Carlyle is by turns awkward, warm, sincere and bewildered, perfectly believable as a man awash in grief yet hoping to rejoin life. It turns out that dance class, led by the theatrical Mary Steenburgen, holds his lifeline. Other strong performances come from Marisa Tomei, Sean Astin, John Goodman, Ernie Hudson, David Paymer, Camryn Manheim and Sonia Braga, all of whom play people yearning for something, some one. Viewers may get distracted early in the film, seeing Carlyle in a dance venue and secretly hoping the soundtrack would queue up 'You Sexy Thing,' to get to see Carlyle reprise some of his fabulous shtick from The Full Monty. But it turns out Carlyle is just as winning performing the Lindy Hop or waltz. And, the film suggests, once the body moves and the soul is stirred--can love be far behind? The answer is: May I have the honor of this dance? Extras include the short 1990 film this feature was based on and an audio commentary. --A.T. Hurley
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - MAGICAL
How my ratings work:
5 - I really liked/loved it
4 - I liked it
3 - Could've been better/worth a look
2 - Just didn't live up to the potential
1 - Simply aweful
Masgical is the best way for me to describe this films. It's funny, sad, touching, and all around well crafted. I loved the ways they changed the color for the 2 different flashbacks and then normal color of the prestent storyline. I thought it was clever to mix the original short film (which is good in it's own way) with the new film. If you watch this on dvd check out the short film by itself, it has some additional moments not featured in the full length film. There's commentary by co-writer/co-producer/editor/director Randall Miller, co-writer/co-producer Jody Savin (wife of Miller), and actor Elden Henson (who appears in the film and was in the original 1990 short). Everyone gives great performances and the music is terrific. Don't expect the a typical dance film when watching this because it is so much more than that. It's a movie that. It's a movie about loss, love, recindling, and yes dancing too.
Rating: - A Deep Thought Provoking Film
I particularly enjoyed the way that this film told a story in and out of sequence. The manner for which it flowed was out of the ordinary, which gripped the audiences attention and kept it there consistently. This is what fine story telling on film is all about.
The writing was well accomplished with a sense of depth and emotion to each character's personal struggles.
This story is about moving on despite life's difficulties and is enriched by the talents of all who were involved in this production. Great cast, great technical qualities...a good, solid film.
Rating: - sweet charming movie with sad undertones
I never heard of this movie until recommended by Amazon. Looked it up and
noticed it stars Robert Carlyle, an actor I have liked since I saw The Full Monty. It is very sweet and charming but also has a sad story. It certainly kept me entertained.
Rating: - THERAPYDANCE: "He thinks he's Michael Flatley!"
"Dance is a very powerful drug" Starts Miss Marienne Hotchkiss."If embraced judiciously it can exorcise demos,access deep-seated emotion and color your life in joyous shades of brilliant magenta that you never knew existed."Miss Hotchkiss concludes,"But one must shoulder its challenges with intrepid countenance if one is to reap its rewards.Are you up to it?"
MISS HOTCHKISS' BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL is a most unusual look at "guilt as a worthless emotion" and breaking free of the perceived nostalgic memories of the past in order to move forward with life.For many, life stops when a missed opportunity plunges us into regret when we choose the left path instead of the right path.That path may lead us into years of emptiness,loneliness and regret where we fail to connect with another human being.For the folks in this unconventional look at locked away emotion, life has the chance to start anew with the learned-by-wrote introduction "May I have this dance,Miss" and the appropriate response "I'd be enchanted,Sir!".
MARILYN HOTCHKISS is a charming and heart-wrenching look at the 1960's charm school that was to teach children their first and proper introduction into the world of etiquette and social interaction.What is particularly unique about this present 2006 arthouse release is that it is the expanded version of the 1990 short film by the same title.Whereas the original short focused on the pre-pubescent look at the girl/boy-love/hate angst,this present rendering ... Read More
Rating: - They didn't actually see the car crash
This DVD's been released for a couple of years. It's already been competently précised by other reviewers. Overwhelmingly, they seem to admire it - as do I. Rather than cover already familiar ground, I'd prefer to take issue with several misplaced criticisms:
1) The "off-putting" title: Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
Anyone claiming the title is "off-putting" needs to cultivate more curiosity in picking their DVDs. That's not to mention recognizing the potential for good-natured satire which abounds in this movie.
Ballroom Dancing and Charm School conventions ARE stilted and pretentious. Young people dread and deride them but (true to the film) they still sign up.
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School's mediocrity and artificial conventions are hilariously but nevertheless sensitively spoofed. It's wry humor never descends to slapstick.
The subtle parallels between "British Bulldog" and the sexes retreating behind the Blue and Pink lines on either side of the hall were a real hoot.
Another delight was Marienne acknowledging her late mother at the beginning of each session, not to mention Frank Keane enrolling his friends from the "Dead Wives'Club" (if I heard correctly). This group was seriously under performing in terms of bereavement healing. Again, one suspects a gentle commentary on group therapy per se. .
As children, teenagers and adults, many of us have been ... Read More
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