Rent Flashdance on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Thomas Hedley Jr. and Joe Eszterhas (screenplay), Thomas Hedley Jr. (story)
Directed by: Adrian Lyne
Starring: Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A Pittsburgh woman with two jobs as a welder and an exotic dancer wants to get into ballet school.
Verdict
I want more out of the story. I thought this would follow the structure of a sports movie where Alex fails, must train to overcome, and then win in the end. Then I thought there might be a parallel with Alex and her ice skating friend who fails, but that doesn't go anywhere. Alex dates her boss, who's nearly twice her age. The moral of the story seems to be date your rich boss and hope he has connections. This could be something if we ever saw Alex dance before the final scene, but our only preview is her running in place.
Skip it.
Review
I've never seen this movie, but the music is very familiar. This is one of those 80s touchstones. I'm sure the story line of overcoming hardship to achieve your dream felt more fresh when this released. This has a music video style to it with some very stylistic shots paired to the soundtrack.
Alex (Jennifer Beals) is a welder and a dancer. I always thought welders did quite well. Is it just her dream to dance? Where did she train to become a welder and how did she get fully trained at such a young age?
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| Jennifer Beals plays Alex |
Alex goes to apply for dance school, but she's embarrassed that she's working class. She's wearing work clothes and boots while the other dancers are wearing ballet slippers just to apply for the school. She runs out before completing the application.
I began to wonder what this movie is about. Alex begins a relationship with the boss of her company after he saw her stripping. When this movie released Beals was twenty and Nouri was thirty-eight. It's a power imbalance.
I assume there would be a lot of sexual harassment on the job since Alex is a young female welder in a male dominated field. Surprisingly we don't see any of that. There is a lot of sexual harassment in this everywhere else that goes unchecked, but even ignoring that which isn't easy, what is this about? We don't even know if Alex is a good dancer. All we see is her sprinting in place in her loft. There seems to be a parallel between Alex and her ice skating friend who isn't very good and ends up quitting on ice skating.
It seems like the moral of the story is to get a rich boyfriend to help pave your way. Even that's improper with a boss dating an employee half his age. I assumed this would be structured more like a sports movie where Alex is struggling, has an early failure, and must then overcome at the end to win. There just isn't much here.
The parallel with Alex's ice skater friend who becomes a stripper doesn't seem like anything. Alex is mad her boyfriend got her an interview at the dance company, but she's not pursuing the dream anyway. Why not take advantage of the relationship. The final scene where we finally see Alex dance for the school feels like a parody. She's dancing to modern music in front of this stuffy, old board who actually dig the song. That's probably more me than the movie as I've seen that type of scene many times in newer movies. This is underwhelming. I wanted some kind of moral to the story, at least more than date your boss and hope he has a connection. Alex never really struggles with her goal. If she applied and was denied because she wasn't good enough and then trained hard to improve, that's one thing. With this movie, she doesn't even apply. Without any prior training, her chances seem slim, but I still want something more out of this
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