Footloose

by Racheal
(Australia)

This is a remake of the 1984 film which in turn had a musical adapted from it as well as a highly successful song which the new film does to death. As I’ve mentioned before, Hollywood is obsessed with remakes at the moment. In the aftermath of the GFC and given how risky and expensive big films are, Hollywood wants to make sure they get a bang for their buck. The answer being, to go with something which was very successful first time round. There are of course a couple of changes from the original, for example the 80s hair do’s are missing, what a shame.

Ren, a city slicker with a Yankee twang, moves to small town Bomont. There he encounters the Preacher’s rebel daughter Ariel (Julianne Hough) and a legal ban on dancing, playing loud music, drinking and basically anything which would enable teenagers to run amuck. Along Ren’s journey he tames Ariel, whips her douche bag boyfriend and embarks on mission to reinstate dancing.

Ren arrives in what I’m going to call the Edward Cullen/Ray Bans moment. There also seems to be something James Dean’esque about him from Rebel Without A Cause. He’s got the hair, the leather jacket, that slightly shy look mixed with a bad boy, rebel thing.

Overall the film just plods along. There isn’t really a big upping of the anti for the climax. There is one good heart wrenching in the scene in the church where I actually thought wow this Julianne chick can act. Speaking of Julianne, she gives chicks a bad name. Her character is a whole lot of trouble. If I was going to turn for anyone it would be either her or that Kristen chick from The Hills.

There is a race, which is meant to come across as bad-ass, but they’re racing buses. Yep, buses. So it just seems silly. The script is actually quite funny, most of the comedic moments go to the best friend of Ren who is actually hilarious. The dancing is also quite good, although theres a bit too much line dancing for my liking. There are quite a few cheesy moments too it, especially the start. And, I know this is largely insignificant but I don’t like the font they’ve used for the credits. Bold and yellow. Really? Last time I checked this was a Hollywood remake not a school project.

But the film seems to be contradicting itself. On the one hand it shows that when the kids could do what they wanted, they run amuck, partied hard and a bunch of seniors were in a car crash and died. Hence the laws from prohibiting kids from doing so, presumably to keep them safe. Of course they still dance and drink anyways. Ren tries to get the ban on dancing lifted. He claims it is his inherent right to do so. He just wants to dance, dam it! America is all about the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, founding fathers fighting for equality and freedom and all the rest of it, so this seems a fitting American theme.

He doesn’t win though so they go into the next town have a dance there. Like a proper dance with corsages and slow dancing. Lovely right. Everything seems above board. Except then a fight erupts at the dance. Which is exactly what the parents were afraid of happening in the first place. So on the one hand it looks like, if we give teenagers the chance they will opt for the nice, safe, respectable social dancing option but then, as someone who actually is or was a teenager will tell you – no, we would nearly always pick the racier, hard partying option. Plus the summary poster for the film is a scene from the dirty dancing party in the car park not the barn yard dance at the end.

There is one nice touch to this film and that is when one of the characters give the young lads a pep talk about manning up and going over and asking the girl to dance. Amen to that!

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