Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) is the king of ballroom dance and rooted in tradition of the styles with a pushy mother and wimp-ish father with only key memories of his own abilities and faded moments of success at the Pan Pacific Grand Prix dance.
Everyone thought it was his year and then he committed the cardinal sin of dancing those ‘flashy, crowd-pleasing steps’. His mother feels she has failed him and his main partner Liz (Gia Carides) won’t accept his own unorthodox style. Enter ugly duckling novice Fran (Tara Morice), who tells Scott she wants ‘to dance your way’….
…and so emerges this cliche-laden storyline of an age, which director Baz Luhrmann turned into a major indie hit across the world, leading him to success with the likes of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO +JULIET, MOULIN ROUGE and THE GREAT GATSBY.
This is a truly flashy affair for all the family, with some excellent dance sequences (not to mention a wonderfully revealing scene between Fran’s father and Scott when he demonstrates a proper ‘Paso Doble’ at the family home)
It’s also incredibly funny and touching at the same time, with an uplifting happy ending. To quote the John Paul Young song that plays:
“LOVE IS IN THE AIR”
One of my picks of the website.