This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I am not a film maker or film student, just like movies and watch way more than I should. This is not the type of movie I would generally watch but because I like Robert Carlyle I gave it a chance. I am glad I did.I forgive the fact there are no great dancers in the film as it isn't about dance and most in the classes are students, children, older...in essence, they aren't dancers and most are probably not there to become expert dancers.It IS a movie that looks to tug at the heartstrings and manipulate the emotions but most movies are trying to illicit a response, an emotional reaction, of some kind. This movie did a good job.Personally I had a hard time investing emotionally in this movie but it gradually weakened my resolve and I started caring about the characters.Indeed it is an older short film encapsulated in an updated shell and secondary story but to be honest, the characters (and a few were real characters), anachronisms and all, were still just as interesting and was worked into the new overarching story quite well.Any weakness of this story, this project, was ably work around by a great cast that did seem to immerse themselves in their roles. Its not a perfect film, it overtly tugs at the heartstrings, sappy, some comedy. I recommend it but it certainly isn't going appeal to all.I wish they had credited 'freeway' the boombox button pusher...it was a funny touch, one of a few minor quirky characters both modern and flashback, little touches that added to the enjoyment of the movie.

Being a ballroom dancer this was pretty much a "required viewing." It was a little different from what I expected, but it was still worth the time. I've read the feelings of a lot of dancers who have rated this movie lower than I did. I would guess that they come by their opinions based on the fact that dancing to them, is a competition sport and that's how they always look at it. My feeling towards dancing would probably be more in line with those of Mary Ann Hotchkiss and Mr. Keane. "Dance is a very powerful drug Mr. Keane. If embraced judiciously, it can exorcise demons, access deep seated emotions and color your life in joyous shades of brilliant magenta that you never knew existed. But, one must shoulder its challenges with intrepid countenance if one is ever to reap its rewards." Get this movie, curl up on the couch with your honey and enjoy a very nice, sweet movie about searching for, and finding reasons for going on, even when life seems so pointless.

Writer-director Randall Miller tries far too hard to make a multi-layered film about spiritual reawakening that he defaults into either formula or incoherence to move his low-budget movie along. With its unwieldy title signaling its contrivance, the 2006 dramedy, co-written by Miller and his wife Jody Savin, is an oddly unsatisfying film that attempts to track three different timelines through jumpy edits and differing film stock. Filmed in irritating bleached tones, the first storyline focuses on Frank Keane, an Irishman who moved his family's baking business to California. Shell-shocked from his wife's recent suicide, he comes upon a road accident which has left the driver badly hurt and pinned inside his car. The victim is Steve Mills, an overweight, seemingly gregarious man who was rushing to meet Linda, his childhood crush from forty years earlier, in the ballroom where they last saw each other.This kick-starts the second storyline, which flashes back to Steve's pre-adolescence when he accidentally gave Linda a black eye during a rough game of British Bulldog. With heavy echoes of "The Wonder Years", this portion of the movie is actually footage from Miller's 1990 short with the same title. It shows Steve and Linda first dancing at the Marilyn Hotchkiss ballroom. With Steve sharing his memories with Frank and Frank attempting to keep Steve conscious on the way to the hospital, we are given the third storyline which takes place again in the Marilyn Hotchkiss ballroom, this time in the present day. This time, in Steve's place, Frank shows up for dance class trying to find the now adult Linda amid a gallery of eccentric characters learning to dance under the tutelage of the late Marilyn's daughter, Marienne. Even more characters are introduced by way of Frank's therapy support group of recently widowed men.The cumulative result is a hodgepodge of artificial moments that feed into Miller's overriding theme of getting on with one's life in spite of the barriers one faces. For such a potentially strong ensemble, the performances are variable though mainly because most of the actors are not given enough screen time to flesh out their stereotypical characters. With his mangy-looking hair and sad eyes, Robert Carlyle does well enough as Frank, though his zombie-like behavior at the outset is enough to unsettle anyone. John Goodman plays Steve as the accident victim, though the combination of his bulky, uncomfortable-looking frame and his wheezing delivery is hard to watch for an extended period. Marisa Tomei affectingly portrays Frank's new love interest, Meredith, who holds a secret and has an intractable link to her constant dance partner, Randall, played convincingly by Donnie Wahlberg as an egocentric bully who feels he owns the dance floor.Others are simply wasted in smaller roles – an affected Mary Steenburgen as the prim Marienne who demands order and courtesy in her late mother's ballroom; Sonia Braga as a flirtatious dancer; and as members of Frank's support group, Sean Astin, Adam Arkin, David Paymer and Ernie Hudson. The ending contains something of a twist, and Camryn Manheim and Danny DeVito show up late in the film in intriguing cameos. But by that point, it all comes too late due to the overlapping story lines and sluggish pacing. The DVD has rather perfunctory commentary from Miller, Savin and actor Elden Hensen, who plays both Frank's bakery co-worker in the modern sequences and Sam in the vintage flashbacks filmed in 1990 when he was thirteen. The other significant extra is the original 1990 short with William Hurt providing the memory flashback voice-over as the adult Sam. The package strangely does not make clear that this is the inspiration for the later film, so it seems like a patched-together version of the flashback scenes.

CHARM SCHOOl stars Robert "Ravenous" Carlyle as a grieving widower who comes back to life after a run-in with errant motorist John Goodman sends him to an old-fashioned dance school, where he encounters new love, new life and new meaning. Marissa Tomei (where has she been?) plays his newfound love, an emotionally fragile woman who is in the thrall of her mean-spirited stepbrother (Donnie "Sixth Sense" Wahlberg), who also attends the dance studio. Nobody and nothing is quite what it seems in this simple little tale of love lost and found, as you will discover by the end. The biggest shocker involves Carlyle tracking down Goodman's long-lost love, which I guarantee will have you talking about the movie long after it is over. A wonderful film, populated by some of Hollywood's most recognizable faces (David Paymer, Ernie Hudson, Camerin Manheim, Adam Arkin and Danny DeVito) in small roles -- although this is the kind of movie where no role is really small. Along with the wonderful Carlyle and Tomei (I kept saying to myself, imagine running into Marissa Tomei in a rundown dance studio) Mary Steenburgen absolutely shines as the oddly repressed daughter of the woman who founded the dance school. Steenburgen's character hysterically launches every session by remarking that her mother, who has been dead since 1972, "cannot be with us this evening." Based on a short film from 1990 by the same director. Make sure you watch that short, which is included on the DVD and narrated by William Hurt. And keep a box of tissues near at hand.