Strictly Ballroom (1992)
Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Huter, Pat Thompson; d. Baz Luhrmann; A-

Imagine you are on an island. Around you are a group of different islands, each with a different director on them. Some of these islands move. The ones who can make the best contact with you levitate towards you. Some even get on your island. The ones who are the least accessible move away with the tide. One day you get a letter from a man named Baz Luhrmann, and you think, "Who?" You turn around, and there he is. He's one of those "audience-friendly" directors who is at perfect ease on your island, you assume. But then, you turn around, and look at one of the more distant islands. He's on one of those, too.

That's the paradox of Baz Luhrmann and his now-finished "Red Curtain" trilogy. They're both accessible and distant at the same time, which is the point of the whole thing. You're invited into a world and a story that is both familiar and "exotic" at the same time. It's sheer brilliance, this Red Curtain, a beautiful and thrilling experiment in direction, and one of the few modern examples of a director actually caring about his audience (most of the time directors don't give a @#$% what the audience thinks). You may not like what Luhrmann's doing, his style may be far too removed from reality for you can grasp, but you sure have to admire that he has the guts to go out there and do it.

Strictly Ballroom is the first installment of the trilogy. It's considerably more toned-down than its follow-ups, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, though its level of absurdity almost soars above the other two combined. Unlike the other two it's based on a relatively simple and familliar story (David vs. Goliath), and is set in Australia's ballroom dancing community (which, if you need reference, is strikingly similar to figure skating's pairs/ice dancing). The theme is universal (sticking it to the man), as are the characters (all searching for their own true identities).

Scott Hastings (Paul Mecurio) is one of the hottest dancers on the ballroom circuit. His career is getting almost as hot as Nicole Kidman's until, during one competition, he breaks out into his own "crowd-pleasing" moves to avoid being "boxed-in" by an opposing couple. When Scott's dancing partner leaves him for a more successful dancer, Scott's supporters, including his backstage mother (Pat Thompson), try their best to save his reputation. They urge him to find a respectable dancer and return to the accepted dance moves. But Scott is resistant. He wants to do his own steps, and perform them at the upcoming Pacific Grand Prix. Predictably he has trouble finding support from his peers, but the mousy Fran (Tara Morice), a beginning dancer who takes lessons from Scott's mother, is interested in dancing with him his way. Compared to the professionals, Fran is a free spirit, completely inhibited from the conventions of ballroom dancing, and as the two become clandestine dancing partners, she and her family teaches Scott an important lession about himself and his rhythm. In the process the audience is taken into a wildly unique and exhilarating journey into the world of dancing and of the human spirit.

This is without a doubt Luhrmann's most accessible film to date, for the reasons stated before. It's easy to relate to the people who want to break free from conventions and do their own thing, easy to relate to people who have the guts to try and stick up to institutions. The themes are classic Capra-corn, only made fresh because it's in the irritably quirky Australia than apple pie America.

What's also refreshing is the artistic medium Strictly Ballroom uses to express its central theme. An important factor in all Red Curtain films is that each one uses some artistic medium as a means to convey their central themes to the audience. These forms of expression, as I see it, have to have some correlation to the world in which the movie exists in. Romeo + Juliet was a Shakespearian tragedy and thus the characters had to express themselves in ye olde Shakespearian. In Moulin Rouge, the characters lived in a world in which dancing, music, and writing were important, perfect for a musical. Since Strictly Ballroom is about ballroom dancing, the medium is dance. This is head-and-shoulders above most of the American films that are made about dancing. Our dance films are nothing more than really, really, really soft porn. It's not about freeing the human spirit but freeing the human libido, though, of course, freeing the spirit apparently is the essential theme. While there is an element of sex in Strictly Ballroom, it's clear that the dancing represents something more, and it succeeds in expressing it beautifully. Luhrmann's heightened and bizarre atmosphere creates such a sharp and humorous contrast between those who are restricted and those who are unrestrained. Plus, John "Cha-Cha" O'Connel's (who also worked on Moulin Rouge) dazzling, fast, and sexy choreography is among the best ever done on film.

The script is the most solid of the three Luhrmann and collaborator Craig Pearce have written. The story isn't contrived, or too simplistic for its settings, but completely believable and sufficient for its style. And for all of its weirdness, Luhrmann's direction is beautifully restrained compared to his other efforts (thought not saying his escalating extravagancy in direction hasn't resulted in something great, namely Moulin Rouge). Unlike Moulin Rouge, however, he does let the camera sit back and absorb the wonderful choreography (though one can argue that the lyrics were more important in Moulin Rouge than the actual dancing). Again like the story his direction is the most accessible, it's not as fast paced as his other films. There's a certain simplistic charm in Strictly Ballroom that is missing from his later efforts, given that Luhrmann created a more lighthearted atmosphere and theme, and that it lacked the heavy-handed tone that is present in Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge. Of course the same problems with direction that are present in the next two Red Curtain films are present in this one. Luhrmann has a tendency to over do special camera techniques (surprisingly with this one it's the overuse of slow motion), and that the beginning is far too fast paced in comparison to the rest of the film.

Yet it's the same old direction of the cast as usual. The performances are all solid, none of them particularly jaw-dropping or even noticeable enough to pick out as individuals. It's over done to the point that it's comfortable in its atmosphere. And unlike other Luhrmann films, the music, well, sucks. It's overly synthetic. But that's probably the point, and though it sounds like it came from your next door neighbor's 10 year old Casio keyboard, the quirkiness of it matches the synthetic atmosphere of the community presented in the film.

While there are certain elements of the film that were done better than Moulin Rouge, in no way does Strictly Ballroom top it. The latter is still the better Luhrmann film. But, if I were to recommend a Luhrmann film to a friend who had never seen any of his movies, Strictly Ballroom would be the first on my list, because, if you want to take your friend off that island, you better send them something they can grab onto better than something that might scare them away.

© Vert A Go Go Reviews 2002