Strictly Ballroom (DVD)

"Strictly Ballroom" is an off-the-wall Australian comedy. Sometimes you find yourself wondering what was going through the director's mind, but nonetheless it's all in good fun.

We start off with this bizarre set of interviews introducing you to the main characters. Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) is a competition dancer. He has been dancing all his life and is currently partnered with Liz Holt (Gia Carides - Cousin Nikki ...
...the competition, they got boxed in so Scott decides to do something different and daring. Liz is forced very grudgingly to go along with it, but she ends up throwing a tantrum. The crowd loved it, but certain very important people disapprove of his new dancing steps. Particularly Barry Fife (Bill Hunter - Bill Heslop in "Muriel's Wedding") who is head of the Ballroom Confederation, who denies the admissibility of new steps.

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"Strictly Ballroom" is an off-the-wall Australian comedy. Sometimes you find yourself wondering what was going through the director's mind, but nonetheless it's all in good fun.

We start off with this bizarre set of interviews introducing you to the main characters. Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) is a competition dancer. He has been dancing all his life and is currently partnered with Liz Holt (Gia Carides - Cousin Nikki in "My Big Fat Wedding")) a spoilt prima donna. During the competition, they got boxed in so Scott decides to do something different and daring. Liz is forced very grudgingly to go along with it, but she ends up throwing a tantrum. The crowd loved it, but certain very important people disapprove of his new dancing steps. Particularly Barry Fife (Bill Hunter - Bill Heslop in "Muriel's Wedding") who is head of the Ballroom Confederation, who denies the admissibility of new steps.

The only one who seems to sympathise with his desire to create a revolution with his new steps, is Fran (Tara Morice) dubbed Frangipani by Liz Holt. She is the one who always ends up dancing with another girl rather than having a partner of her own. In the large scheme of things her opinion doesn't really matter, but she persuades Scott that if he wants to dance his own steps, then he needs her as a partner. As Scott has lost his partner, he tries her out in secret and comes to realise that the Rumba really is the dance of love.

In his desire to dance his new steps in the Pan Pacific, he creates a huge furor, especially with his mother who is firmly in league with Barry Fife. In fact everyone idolises Barry Fife, and they all firmly believe in all he has to say. Even when what he's saying is wrong, they all trust in his wisdom and carry it out.

I think this is an amazing film. This being Baz Luhrmann's directorial debut, he shows a promise of greater things to come including "Moulin Rouge" his most recent movie. (I say most recent, a new project has been announced, but as far as I know has not commenced filming.) It is easy to find similarities between the two movies as his quirkiness is so outstanding. He really has a different approach to filming than most mainstream directors. If you enjoy his style then you will definitely enjoy this film. If you don't like your comedies to be off-the-wall then you probably should steer clear. Having said that I don't think I know anyone who didn't like this film.

Tara Morice's film debut in this is fantastic. Her characterisation is superb, and the depth of character is well-developed. Starting from her down-trodden beginnings with wide-eyed appeal to showing her in family life, and actually standing up to Scott when she needs to.

Gia Carides carries off her role with aplomb, getting into her bitchy character with full gusto. I particularly enjoyed the way she played her role. Isn't it funny how the bitchy ones tend to be the best parts.

Another superb female character was Scott's mother, Shirley Hastings, played by Pat Thomson. Her tears and screams just make this movie. And her "happy face."

Paul Mercurio is a very talented dancer and it shows. He is a trained ballet dancer and this I felt showed in his movement in many of the dance scenes. But while he was new to this form of dancing, his performance was flawless.

This leads me to the choreography which was really superb. From beginning to end it was flawless and blended in seamlessly. The choreographer John 'Cha Cha' O'Connell has also done choreography for "Muriel's Wedding," "Moulin Rouge" and rather interestingly "Scooby Doo." I can vouch for his brilliant choreography in "Moulin Rouge."

I really loved this movie for it's offbeat humour, it's expose on the ballroom dancing world and the complete quirkiness of the direction. But I think the best part of this film is the music. The songs to this film have stuck with me and I love to listen to them. Of course, being a ballroom dancing movie, it wouldn't have been complete without music. But, the choice of music was superb. One of my favourites is "Time after Time" sung by Tara Morice (showing that her talents are not restricted to acting and dancing). Another favourite is "Love is in the Air" sung by John Paul Young, the video to which is actually on this DVD.

The lights and make-up and all the shimmering sequins converge to make up this extremely garish film. And the scenes where Scott is told about his dad's past are positively wonderful. The whole world of ballroom dancing is fake and this is very well portrayed in this film.

Special features on this DVD include a "Behind the Scenes" documentary, the Original Movie Trailer and of course the video to the wonderful "Love is in the Air." The documentary is quite interesting as it reveals rather a lot about the actors in the movie. There are also biographies about Baz Luhrmann, Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice. I have to say though that the video to "Love is in the Air" was a bit scary. The good parts were where it showed you some of the best bits from the film, but some of the additional choregraphy, I found was both scary and not very well done. So like most music videos, one to skip.

I bought this one from MVC where it should have sold at £34.99, but was on sale for £4.99. Frankly to pay full price for this I would expect a bit more. It comes in a nice cardboard cover and is very stylish, but with the extra features, does not do enough to justify that price. At £4.99, I feel that it was well worth the money. Amazon sells it for £15.99 which I feel is a much better price than £15.99, but I still prefer the £4.99 I paid for it.
 

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