Finding Your Feet
In the spirit of inclusion, this worn but warm film makes a welcome entry into the superhero saturated scene.
It would be easy to shuffle this later-life-rebound picture into a neat category with the few others of its ilk (I’m looking at you, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), but why should we categorize any piece of work? Yes, this movie, about a group of struggling singles in their 60s and 70s may not appeal to the superhero crowd, but for audiences who might need this kind of story or relate to it, these late blooming dancers become another kind of superhero, inspiring those who might be giving up to give it one last shot.
The action (and yes, there IS action) revolves around Imelda Staunton’s Sandra, a haughty woman who suddenly finds herself at sea when her husband decides to move in with her old tennis partner. Dragging her bags to sister Bif (Celia Imrie)’s bohemian digs, the story begins to feel like a poor man’s, or poor director’s, version of Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. We all know what’s going to happen, and just who it’s going to happen with, especially when the always wonderful Timothy Spall shows up.
The reason this retread works is not just its familiar but effective story line, which, truth be told, borders at times just on the edge of annoying, but also because of the actors telling it. Imrie and Staunton could play these characters in their sleep, but both insist on keeping their eyes, ears and hearts as open and alive as if they were starring in a Pulitzer Prize winning stage play. It’s delightful to see Joanna Lumley as a head-on-her-shoulders sober counsel. But the real winner here is Spall, the ever great character actor, (best known for Mr. Turner and Secrets and Lies), as the romantic lead. Now that’s something to live for.
The Movie Minute 