“Men seldom make passes…”
I finally did see Shall We Dance [Dansu]? It was much better than the other mid-90s foreign ballroom dancing romantic comedy film Strictly Ballroom. This time the kutzy amateur dancer was male and the experienced dancer, who learns to appreciate their new partner, was female.
They both had the stepping-on-toes-while-learning-to-dance scene. They both had the meddling matriarch and the oddball dancing couple as supporting characters. They both end with the big dance scene. But bad one was another bad re-hash of the ugly-duckling-into-swan theme. Just like Princess Diaries, She’s All That, Love Potion No. 9, and countless others, all you have to do to make a girl pretty is to get her to take off her glasses. She never needs them anyway!
My daughter tore her new glasses up beyond repair a few weeks ago. Even though mom, dad, and all four grandparents also have glasses, my daughter (a few weeks into Kindergarten) has learned to be resentful of them.