Synopsis: Read on IMDB

Should tou watch this movie? It’s formulaic and has many flaws, but I thought it was a lot of fun and the dancing definitely won me over. For everyone else, this is a strong “maybe”.

Bruce Garret is a salsa dance prodigy with a promising future in competitive dancing when a bullying episodes traumatizes him enough to give up on his dream. 22 years later, Bruce is a lonely, overweight employee at an industrial machinery manufacturer who still gets bullied, but this time by his co-worker Drew. When he develops an attraction for his new American boss, Julie, he is well aware she is way out of his league, until he realizes she is an avid salsa dancer and this sparks a new motivation to get back to his dancing roots.

This is a romantic comedy with a dance twist starring Nick Frost as Bruce, Rashida Jones as Julie and Chris O’Dowd as Drew. It is surprisignly slow-paced for a dance movie, however; the plot is overall moving at an appropriate pace (you do have some parts where the plot just drags on, but they are very few). The chemistry between Frost and Jones is really lacking. On their own they are great actors and extremely likeable, but for some reason they don’t seem to connect. Maybe had they spent more time together on screen, this would’ve happen. But alas, it did not.

Other actors, such as Ian McShane (as Ron, the salsa trainer) were pretty great and funny, but also didn’t get much screentime. One actor that was a refreshing addition was Kayvan Novak in the role of Bejan. This was incredibly hilarious comic relief. I often hoped to see Bejan doing his thing more and more throughout the movie. I’d watch a movie about Bejan. Something absolutely fabulous with a predominantly gay cast of all backgrounds and….. I digress.

Anyway, fun movie to watch, but I’m conscious some people will feel a waste of money.

Bechdel Test: Pass (?)
1. It has to have at least two [named] women in it There is Rashida Jones in the main role of Julia, Bruce’s love interest, Olivia Colman as Sam, Bruce’s sister, and Alexandra Roach as Helen, a coworker.
2. Who talk to each other Not a lot, and I’m not even sure if the characters cross paths at all, since most of it revolves around Bruce.
3. About something besides a man I think there is a very small bit about work stuff between Julia and Helen, but that’s about it.

Does it matter? The movie is all about Bruce. I get that. But there was definitely context for more female interaction whch was lacking in this one. Yes, it does matter, no matter how much I emjoyed the actual flick.

Paola’s mood after watching this movie: