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Shall We Dance?

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 33 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Musical | Romance
Written by:
Audrey Wells
Masayuki Suo (1997 screenplay)
Directed by: Peter Chelsom
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 15, 2004
DVD: February 1, 2005
Running Time: 106 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some sexual references and brief language
Starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Bobby Cannavale, Anita Gillette, Lisa Ann Walter, Omar Miller, Richard Jenkins, and Nick Cannon
A workaholic lawyer's life and marriage take an unexpected twirl when he follows a beautiful woman to a Chicago dance studio and becomes a clandestine ballroom dance competitor. (Miramax)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Hannah Montana: The Movie Serendipity Shall We Dance? (1997) Town & Country
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The new film compensates with Gere's wry performance as a man who lacks for nothing material but hungers for something spiritual. Even better is Stanley Tucci's delirious turn as Gere's balding, button-down colleague.
Read Full Review >Premiere Peter Debruge
This is Geres movie, and Sarandon and Lopez graciously let him dance away with it.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
A warm-hearted and understated entertainment that's blissfully free of the heavy-handed crudity and other elements that have ravaged 21st-century Hollywood comedy.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Gere is a pleasure, smiling and spinning and high-fiving his two classmates -- played by Bobby Cannavale and Omar Miller -- and the movie is happy and extremely likable.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Conventional as it may be, Shall We Dance? offers genuine delights. The fact that Paulina is uninterested in romance with John comes as sort of a relief, freeing the story to be about something other than the inexorable collision of their genitals.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
It's an intelligent, funny, mature comedy that wears its heart on its sleeve and makes you care about the inner lives of ridiculously privileged human beings.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
As glossy and overproduced as the thing is, it's a GOOD Big Stupid American movie.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A sleek Hollywood crowd-pleaser, more movie than art film, but its makers have wisely stuck not only to the spirit but often even to the letter of the original.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
When it works, Shall We Dance? has a way of sweeping you off your feet.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Goes too far in its slapstick efforts to please mainstream audiences, but there's no denying the genuine appeal of -- and I can't believe I'm actually writing this -- Richard Gere and ballroom dancing.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
I walked out of the original Shall We Dance? with a silly grin on my face. I left this one shaking my head, wondering where it had all gone wrong.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The movie tries hard to duplicate the original's mood and story, but, like Gere or Lopez, is too much of a visual knockout to rope us in.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
An unabashedly old-fashioned entertainment loaded with traditional dancing and music.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
An old- fashioned feel-good fantasy that piles on the euphoria.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Angel Cohn
Only Lopez, the film's ostensible star, seems to be struggling; she's a lovely dancer, but the only reason Lopez's expressionless performance isn't this sweet picture's downfall is that the script makes so few demands on her.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Considering the talent on both sides of the camera and a story that worked beautifully the first time around, Shall We Dance? should have been a lot better than OK.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
The movie feels choppy and rhythmless. And he's (Chelsom) rather hopeless at dance sequences.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The warm performances give the film momentum, but writer Audrey Wells and director Peter Chelsom (who chops dance sequences clumsily) often stumble.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The movie never gives its heart freely and honestly to the satiny whirl of post-"Chicago" showbiz spectacle it so clearly wants to be.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Runs out of breath and collapses into a heap of feel-good endings that turn a soaring feeling into a sinking one. But by then, the audience that adores it will forgive it its sins.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Shall We Dance?, which roams all over the emotional map without landing anywhere, is an unwieldy mess that gives every impression of having been made under a mandate to fill the Miramax crowd-pleaser slot.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Chelsom has transformed a low-key charmer into an overblown shtick-com whose idea of restraint only extends to forgoing wacky sound effects, a laugh track, and amplified rim-shots every time a character delivers a wisecrack.
Read Full Review >Village Voice David Ng
While Suo's original was hardly a masterpiece, it featured a subtle performance from Koji Yakusho. Gere doesn't even compare, playing the part of a despondent lawyer with the empathy of a mannequin.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Jen Chaney
Occasionally charming but ultimately forgettable bit of fox-trot fluff.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Even those who have never been exposed to the considerable charms of the Masayuki Suo original will likely find Peter Chelsom's all-American version of Shall We Dance? to be a dishearteningly sullen, lead-footed misstep.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Manages to transplant the action to Chicago without completely ruining it, though the emotional impact is largely deflated by the change in cultures.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
This is a "What were they thinking?"-size disaster, with the wrong actors in the wrong roles in a project that had no reason to be remade in the USA.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Now, forcibly deported to Chicago and peopled with American stars, the same story is huffed and puffed and squeezed into an entirely different cultural context. Guess what? Sayonara sushi, hello turkey.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Do yourself a favor and rent the 1996 original from Japan instead.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A remarkably ill-advised remake.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The low point of the new Shall We Dance comes when Miss Paulina finally confesses why she's so sad.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Falls flat, with more "sound design" than delicious music, more slick film editing than graceful ballroom gliding.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
What's left is a lot of strenuous playacting when what's called for is the finesse of the Japanese original. Skip this stub-toed substitute.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
horst h. gave it a7:
Easy entertainment.great music. Afeelgood movie.
Pat C. gave it a4:
Fun to watch and has its cute moments, but lots of formula and little substance. Gere's character is shallow, and haplessly dishonest to his wife, while Lopez provokes all the emotional empathy of an android.
Jeff S. gave it a10:
Shall We Dance? Absolutely! Every role is pitch perfectly cast and directed. This is a beautiful, romantic, intellegent and sly film with an unexpectly grown-up and satisfying resolution. Stanley Tucci, Anita GIllete and the other supporting actors, as do the stars, provide heart and believability to a brilliantly spare and funny script. Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere are perfectly tuned as a married couple. Jennifer Lopez is that unattainable vision trapped in sadness; Lisa Ann Walter is that all too avialable working class girl also trapped in sadness but with street-savvy hope and Tucci, ahhhh, Tucci delivers the single most hilarious, over-the-top but believeable performance in years as straight guy who rhumbas in sequins. The fondness for this movie will grow over the decades. And Director Peter Chelsom washes it with wonderful music and stops the show, appropraitely, brilliantly in service of the story, with Mancini's "Moon River."
adam a. gave it a9:
Classic... The two leads share a different kind of chemistry that can't be seen as amazing, but is of a high standard. The movie sees jennifer lopez in a more suited role, and although she has little to say there's a sort of deep sadness in her expressions throughout most of the movie. The movie takes on a different kind of love story than those featured recently, making it unique. Aside from that, the fact that the movie is a remake detracts from its overall appeal.
Jan H. gave it a0:
I watched this on the plane to America, if there was *anything* else to do I would have done it. Nothing happens in this movie. The plot is tired and weak. There are better TV movies being made than this rubbish.
Ranga M. gave it a10:
Verv nice no words can explan that.
Captain Craig gave it a2:
When you copying a great original move how can you miss it my soooo much? No one seemed to have a clue about what they were supposed to be doing. Unbelievable Hollywood could spend that much money, a produce absolutely nothing!
