Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Thanks for the memories!

Blistering performances.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were/are an iconic dance duo and hugely talented performers. Their ten films together did have silly stories but they had so much to compensate like the songs, choreography and dancing in particular. Carefree is one of their weakest- Top Hat, Swing Time, The Gay Divorcée, Shall We Dance and Follow the Fleet to me have always been better films- but that doesn't mean that there isn't anything to enjoy, because there definitely is. Excluding the story, which is silly and thin- as with Fred and Ginger's films you know that the story is never going to be the best asset- the faults lie with one song and some of the supporting cast. The Yam is not a memorable song at all and has some truly inane lyrics, though the dancing and choreography admittedly is delightful. The supporting cast don't bring the sparkle that Fred and Ginger bring to the lead roles, players like Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton and even Erik Rhodes are missed. Ralph Bellamy is rather one-note and his character is never likable, while Luella Gear is ill-at-ease and saddled with some rather repetitive running comedy. The best of the supporting cast is Jack Carsen who is very good. The script mostly is warm-hearted and witty, if lacking the sophistication and charm of Top Hat and Swing Time. The costume and set design are wonderful, and the photography shimmers while not trying to do anything ambitious. The score fits the screwball-like nature of Carefree ideally, and apart from The Yam the songs are great with Changing Partners faring best. The choreography dazzles even in The Yam, though much more so in Changing Partners and the wonderfully surreal dream sequence as part of the song I Used to Be Colour Blind. What delights the most choreographically though is Fred Astaire's golfing routine. The dancing is athletic, poised and elegant, and the chemistry between Fred and Ginger is still strong. Astaire is his usual charming self getting more comfortable as the film progresses, while Rogers' elegant and effortlessly sassy performance is even more consistent. All in all, not a great film but a good one for the choreography, the songs(apart from one) and the dancing of Fred and Ginger. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Carefree is, unfortunately, a big disappointment. The humor isn't funny, and the music (what I observed of it, anyway) is unimpressive, particularly "The Yam," not one of Irving Berlin's successes, to put it mildly. By the time Astaire and Rogers had completed their first dance together--which by the way didn't begin until more than 45 minutes into the movie--I had lost hope that the movie was going to improve. The focus in this movie is obviously intended to be on the comic elements, but they are, without exception, labored and lame. Another strike against the movie is that Ginger Rogers' character was written as being an airhead, which makes her difficult to care about. The best part of the movie is Rogers' costumes, but that aspect is hardly enough to keep one watching for 83 minutes. Maybe in the last half-hour of the movie, the songs are better and the number of dances is increased, but I couldn't watch any longer in order to find out. If you want to see an entertaining movie starring Rogers and Astaire, don't waste your time on Carefree; stick with Top Hat, The Gay Divorcée, or Swing Time.

After the exceedingly strange Michael Jackson died recently, I was reminded by a sage friend that Jackson had revived dance after a long drought, for a new generation. And I shook my head in grudging respect; he was right. The Musical, which practically dried up in the 80s was displaced to consumable single songs and dance numbers (music videos). And a new, unaware generation applauded every expansion of that format by MJ, not knowing he was traveling already-covered ground, inching ever closer to the full length movie musical. Jackson did restore respect and cachet to dance. He is not so different from Astaire.Carefree offers a comic turn from the tap dancing couple, and in a rare move Ginger pursues Fred this time. Rogers is funnier than usual in this one. It's quite short and at the 50 minute mark a dance number erupts called "the Yam." After I saw the exhilarating number "Pick Yourself Up" in Shall we Dance I had the feeling the team could not possibly do better, and trailed off watching their movies with maybe five to go. What great fun to stumble across this, and be reminded of the exalted place jubilance occupies in the world of dance.The Yam number starts quite corny, and then Astaire and Rogers begin traveling around all the rooms and obstacles in a multi-room restaurant. I love that the scale of the number keeps growing (in terms of couples), and that you don't know where they're heading next. At a time when the grotesque failings of society are glaring, the fantasy presented in musicals that some parts of society function so well that they occasionally function almost as syncopated machinery is very pleasing. The Yam is pretty cool ...in a way that a thousand dancers around a phony Venice lagoon inside a gigantic soundstage is just not. That's about spectacle, I watch A & R because the focus is on dance. The movie is blessedly free of the usual climactic love dance (which is always lame) seen in their other movies.

Carefree marked the third collaboration of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers singing and dancing to an Irving Berlin score. Unfortunately it would prove to be the weakest of the films, the others being Top Hat and Follow The Fleet. One thing was that Irving Berlin wrote a lot less music for this than the other two.The second thing was that it involved psychiatry and we'd have to wait for such musicals as Lady in the Dark and On A Clear Day before the subject was handled in any way responsibly.I'm not sure the subject was the proper one for Astaire and Rogers. The plot has Rogers seeing Astaire professionally while she's engaged to Ralph Bellamy who is playing the typical Ralph Bellamy part. I guess because it's Ralph Bellamy liberties can be taken with the leading lady by a her psychiatrist.It was a bit much to swallow, a man who gave up studying the dance to become a disciple of Sigmund Freud. But that's what Fred Astaire is in Carefree. Usually the two don't mix. I can't imagine Freud breaking out into an intricate Astaire dance routine.I will say that Irving Berlin did give Fred and Ginger some good songs to sing and dance to. The print I have is totally black and white and the I Used To Be Color Blind dream sequence definitely loses something when not seen in color. Fred and Ginger are at their liveliest doing The Yam and the rest of the cast gets involved. In fact I was surprised at how nimble Clarence Kolb was on his feet.Fred's plaintive plea for Ginger to Change Partners got an Oscar nomination for Best Song, but it lost to Bob Hope's perennial theme of Thanks for the Memory. I could not quite enjoy Carefree as much I have other Astaire/Rogers collaborations. When you think about, Fred's using his professional training to mess with her mind. His heart may be in the right place, but his medical ethics stink.