Garfeimao writes: In two weeks time, a new film will be released, starring Sean Astin called “Marilyn Hotchkiss’s Ballroom Dancing and Charm School”. This film was originally screened at Sundance last year, and subsequently bought by Samual Goldwyn for distribution. It stars Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Astin, Donnie Wahlberg, David Paymer, Camryn Manheim, Adam Arkin, Sonia Braga, Ernie Hudson, Danny Devito and John Goodman.
This film is a rather adorable little romance story about dealing with loss, keeping long ago made promises, and the healing nature of dance. I’m not going to give away any of the story, it’s something you need to see and decide for yourself what is happening. But I will say that this film started as a Short Film in 1990, and that short film still survives, in the form of flashbacks, in this current film. In fact, one of the children from the earlier short film makes an appearance as an adult now in the later film. It’s rather clever, actually, the way they intercut the original story, filled it out and filmed the rest of the story. And the cast is to die for, especially with the kind of limited budget independant films are famous for.
This screened for the Inaugral screening of the Orange County Film Society, sponsored by the Newport Beach Film Festival, at the Lido Cinema in Balboa. If you want to see a sweet film that will tug at your heart, I suggest you look this one up.
Expect me when you see me,
Garfeimao
