I have a very mixed opinion of this movie.
To start of, the dancing is fantastic and I loved every scene of it from the beginning to the end. great cinematography that actually showed the dance instead of frantically jump around as they often do in non-dance focused movies.
It was fun seeing amazing dancers, some of which I personally know as well.
The dancing in the rain and the dance scene in the end was the best ones.
The scenes with Chester was nice too, they added a bit of fun mental quirkyness!
But then we look at the plot. It started pretty interesting. Overworking guy doesn't want to dance, his wife dances a lot, then boom, the accident happens and she's in a coma. His life is turned upside down. Here is where the movie could have chosen to focus on Adam's journey to start dancing, getting to like it, and when Lisa woke up, they could have focused on the hardships of her not being able to dance, and how they would work together with each others handling her new limited life, and his new life with the dancing and wife who needs to learn how to get back into life again.
But instead it chose a very very overused boring plot. Adam gets mental about the possible loss of Lisa (that works and is reasonable!) and eventually gets into dancing... because of those messages he saw on the computer. Of course he meets Kjersti outside Chicago and meets her again on the very first day, and she falls for him immediately... it's so shallow it hurts. Now, instead of being honest about his wife, he straight up lies about his status, about his name, about everything, and gets entangled in this weird love triangle that is basically based on insecurity, lies, dishonesty, and cringe. Now add on top of that a huge load of toxic masculinity, with Adam being super territorial about Lisa, feeling the need to literally punch that teacher Anders just because he saw videos of him dancing with Lisa. He didn't even talk to him about it first, didn't even confirm if it was him or not (which it wasn't, because it was Art). He is so full of toxic masculinity that it hurts. The only time in the movie where that actually works is the scenes at Kjersti where he meets that neighbor guy, and we get a glimpse of very typical Swedish awkwardness which is actually kinda funny. I liked those scenes, but otherwise the plot is just so shallow and stupid.
I'm sorry, but if it wasn't for the dancing (and the dream oracle kind of scenes with fantastic Chester) the movie was kind of meh. The dancing saved the movie for sure. So... if you like amazing dance scenes, then yes, it has GREAT and AMAZING dance scenes. But if you are looking for a good, well written and deep plot, then look elsewhere.
But then we look at the plot. It started pretty interesting. Overworking guy doesn't want to dance, his wife dances a lot, then boom, the accident happens and she's in a coma. His life is turned upside down. Here is where the movie could have chosen to focus on Adam's journey to start dancing, getting to like it, and when Lisa woke up, they could have focused on the hardships of her not being able to dance, and how they would work together with each others handling her new limited life, and his new life with the dancing and wife who needs to learn how to get back into life again.
But instead it chose a very very overused boring plot. Adam gets mental about the possible loss of Lisa (that works and is reasonable!) and eventually gets into dancing... because of those messages he saw on the computer. Of course he meets Kjersti outside Chicago and meets her again on the very first day, and she falls for him immediately... it's so shallow it hurts. Now, instead of being honest about his wife, he straight up lies about his status, about his name, about everything, and gets entangled in this weird love triangle that is basically based on insecurity, lies, dishonesty, and cringe. Now add on top of that a huge load of toxic masculinity, with Adam being super territorial about Lisa, feeling the need to literally punch that teacher Anders just because he saw videos of him dancing with Lisa. He didn't even talk to him about it first, didn't even confirm if it was him or not (which it wasn't, because it was Art). He is so full of toxic masculinity that it hurts. The only time in the movie where that actually works is the scenes at Kjersti where he meets that neighbor guy, and we get a glimpse of very typical Swedish awkwardness which is actually kinda funny. I liked those scenes, but otherwise the plot is just so shallow and stupid.
I'm sorry, but if it wasn't for the dancing (and the dream oracle kind of scenes with fantastic Chester) the movie was kind of meh. The dancing saved the movie for sure. So... if you like amazing dance scenes, then yes, it has GREAT and AMAZING dance scenes. But if you are looking for a good, well written and deep plot, then look elsewhere.
