Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
List Price:
Our Price: $5.56
You Save: $9.43 (63%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.48 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: John Goodman, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Robert Carlyle, Sean AstinBrand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-07-04
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
DVD Review: A Good Samiritan tries to keep an appointment for another at Thursday Nights with Marilyn Hotchkiss
Summary: 4 Stars
In 1990, after having directed the "Melissa and Men" episode of "thirtysomething," Randall Miller wrote and directed a 30-minute film entitled "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School." Narrated by William Hurt as the adult Steve Mills, it tells the story of when he was a kid (played by Elden Henson) and was forced by his mother to take lessons in ballroom dancing (and charm) from Marilyn Hotchiss (Patricia Fraser). The Friday night event is complicated by the fact that during a game of British Bulldog, Steve's elbow connected with the eye of young Lisa Gober (Kelley Parker). Steve wants to be cool, just like his friend Kenny Dulin (Joshua Horowitz), but he also wants to apologize to Lisa because he is clearly growing up and you know what that means. The entire short film version of the original "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School" is included on this DVD, as a bonus feature to the main film, Miller's 2005 film of the same name.
I do not recommend that you watch the original before this new version, but I would not dissuade you from doing so either. It is just that there have been many times in recent years that I have seen a short film turned by the director into a longer film. But this is the first time I have seen a director incorporate most of his original film into a longer version, which does not seek to retell the story, but to use it as a look at the past that sets up the events of the present. Steve Mills has grown up and is now played by John Goodman, who also assumes the film's narrator duties. After passing a bakery truck driven by Frank Keane (Robert Carlyle) on a mountain highway, Mills has a car accident. Keane stops to help and having been told by the 911 dispatcher to keep Mills talking, begins to learn of the events of the past.
Keane learns something else. Mills is on his way to an appointment of long standing with Lisa Gober. In point of fact a reunion to take place no matter what on the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the new millennium. Because of the circumstances, Mills asks Keane to keep the appointment for him. So Frank arrives at the right place, where "Thursday Nights with Marilyn Hotchkiss" are now hosted (with our permission and by the grace of God) by her daughter Marienne (Mary Steenburgen). Now all he has to do is meet Lisa and tell her what has happened. But of course Frank gets much more than he bargained for when he steps out on the dance floor with Marienne for a try at the Lindy Hop.
The story proceeds with parallel narratives. In the present, Frank alternates attending Thursday night dance lessons with his weekly group therapy sessions with Rafael Horowitz (David Paymer) for men whose wives have died. The group includes characters played by Adam Arkin, Sean Austin, Ernie Hudson and Miguel Sandoval. At the dances you will see Sonia Braga blowing kisses and Donnie Wahlberg as Randall Ipswitch, the group's self-proclaimed Lord of the Dance (although he is not even Irish), but it is shy Meredith Morrison (Marisa Tomei), whose black eye reminds Frank of the Lisa he has yet to meet that catches his eye and perhaps captures his heart (There are other familiar faces to show up as well, but that would give away a bit too much of the end game of this film).
The idea of using his original film is this way scores point with me for Miller, and therefore I am willing to forgive the uneasy tension between the running joke that every time Mills seems to flatline in the ambulance, Frank's next question revives him (the instruction was to keep Mills talking until the paramedics arrive, at which point talking might become a bad thing), and the poignancy that he is trying to create with Frank with regards to both Meredith and the search for Lisa. This is am ambitious effort and ultimately the problem with the film is that in working in most, but not all, of his original short film, Miller sacrifices time and scenes that could have been devoted to the characters in the present. Consequently, we are forced to connect some of the emotional dots to complete the picture. I am more willing to do so than some, and hopefully you will be as well.
Description of Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
FRANK KEANE IS A BAKER BY TRADE BUT NOW A MAN CONSUMED BY HIS WIFE'S DEATH. WHEN FATE INTERVENES, HE PULLS OVER TO HELP A STRANGER IN A CAR WRECK, A MAN NEAR DEATH WHO URGENTLY DISCLOSESA PLANNED REUNION, A MEETING WITH A LOST CHILDHOOD LOVE AT ASCHOOL FOR BALLROOM DANCE.Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
FaceImage Entertainment; Release date: 2005-10-25; DVD
Best price: $6.02
Price in other shops:
Formula 51Formula; Release date: 2003-02-04; Published: 2003-02-01; DVD
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Human TraffickingEcho; Release date: 2006-05-02; DVD
Best price: $2.84
Price in other shops:
One Last DanceUniversal; Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops:
SGU: Stargate Universe - The Complete First SeasonRelease date: 2010-10-05; DVD
Best price: $27.03
Price in other shops:
Take the LeadNEW Line Home Video; Release date: 2006-08-29; Published: 2006-08-01; DVD
Best price: $2.82
Price in other shops:
Love N' DancingSMF; Release date: 2009-10-20; DVD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Mad Hot BallroomMad; Release date: 2005-10-18; DVD
Best price: $2.64
Price in other shops:
The Full MontyFox; Release date: 2002-05-21; DVD
Best price: $7.82
Price in other shops:
Once Upon a Time in the MidlandsRelease date: 2004-02-10; DVD
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops: