Why you can trust GamesRadar+
Ballroom dancing is like owning Princess Diana crockery: sought by some, scorned by many. Yet this sentimental effort by director Randall Miller follows in a (conga) line behind what is fast becoming a “use your soles to save your soul” sub-genre (think Mad Hot Ballroom, Take The Lead, etc). So, when widowed baker Robert Carlyle discovers a crashed car containing a dying man (John Goodman), who was on his way to a 40-year-old date at the eponymous dance school, he finds himself persuaded to go in his place. Let the Marisa Tomei-shaped healing begin! What follows is perhaps the longest death scene in cinema history, as Goodman wheezes his way through 103 minutes of how-he-went-there-as-a-child-and-fell-in-love flashback schmaltz.
The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.