I have seen some great Altman movies (McCabe and Mrs. Miller), some good Altman movies (The Long Goodbye) and some mediocre Altman movies (Brewster McCloud), but this is the first really bad Altman movie that I have seen.
I was tempted to fast forward through the dance sequences, but I held on, hoping that he would do something interesting with them. In the case of the outdoor rain threatened dance and the last one where a dancer gets hurt, he does, but most of the other sequences fall quite flat.
Everybody has already complained about the lack of plot. It would not have bothered me if the dance sequences had been well edited, but the dance sequences really lack any kind of cinematic style. They seem to have a television director's feel to them, just cutting aimlessly when a shot gets too boring.
I was not impressed by Neve Campbell's dancing. She seemed like a very average dancer, certainly not someone who would be a star or potential star in a major ballet company. In a major dance at the beginning, it seemed that the guy who played Alex was easily out-dancing her. Yet at the end of the scene, she gets the congratulations. Please Neve, do The Craft: Part 2, and forget the dancing.
A movie I bought for my daughter, "Mary and Ashley Kate Olson at the New York City Ballet" was much more enjoyable and I suspect told us more about Ballet life than this movie does. The song "Practice, Practice, Practice" from that is much catchier than anything in this.
I was tempted to fast forward through the dance sequences, but I held on, hoping that he would do something interesting with them. In the case of the outdoor rain threatened dance and the last one where a dancer gets hurt, he does, but most of the other sequences fall quite flat.
Everybody has already complained about the lack of plot. It would not have bothered me if the dance sequences had been well edited, but the dance sequences really lack any kind of cinematic style. They seem to have a television director's feel to them, just cutting aimlessly when a shot gets too boring.
I was not impressed by Neve Campbell's dancing. She seemed like a very average dancer, certainly not someone who would be a star or potential star in a major ballet company. In a major dance at the beginning, it seemed that the guy who played Alex was easily out-dancing her. Yet at the end of the scene, she gets the congratulations. Please Neve, do The Craft: Part 2, and forget the dancing.
A movie I bought for my daughter, "Mary and Ashley Kate Olson at the New York City Ballet" was much more enjoyable and I suspect told us more about Ballet life than this movie does. The song "Practice, Practice, Practice" from that is much catchier than anything in this.