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Family and Friends is my everyday journal. Captain's Log is where I pontificate on religion and politics.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

High Strung Free Dance

Wife found out about this movie at choir practice. We'd never heard of it. Somehow the word got out as it was held over for another week, which is rare in the movie market. We went to see it. There are not enough superlatives to express the impact of this movie on me. WOOOOOOOOOWWWW
Unfortunately this is the kind of movie that won't be shown in smaller towns.


The plot is nothing new. You have a young female dancer trying to get chosen for a spot in a Broadway show. A young man who is trying to get a gig as a piano player in New York. Talent is a dime a dozen in the Big Apple.
The piano player is a bicycle delivery boy who delivers a bag to an old lady's apartment. He sees a piano and starts playing. The old lady speaks to him from a behind a door and freaks out when he tries to see her. She tells him next time to play Shubert. As the movie progresses he plays for her and gets her to come out to see him. She's old and her hands are riddled with arthritis, but she used to be a great pianist. At the end of the movie she's playing the piano again.
The dancer gets the attention of the director of a dance show and he gives her a ride home. On the way his driver knocks the piano player off his bike and they take him to his gig. Okay so far standard fare for this type of rags to riches tale. That's where the trope ends and magic begins.
The gig is a retro speak easy. Everyone inside is dressed in 30's style. The entertainment starts with the piano player getting his sheet music knocked to the floor so he adlibs from what he's heard, the rest of the band follows his lead and the singers and dancers stage a performance without equal.
A friend of the piano player that works at the deli he delivers from is walking to work on a crowded sidewalk with earphones so you don't hear he music that he raps to, but what a rap. Now to me this style of music is seeing who can hic up the fastest. I couldn't make out most of the words, but I got the gist he's frustrated about being talented, but as he finishes, "With all my wishes I'm still washing dishes."
The dancer gets to her apartment to find out her room mate didn't pay the rent for three months and she's evicted. She moves in with four other dancers from the show and when they get to her apartment another roommate is an opera singer and they do an impromptu dance with the singer adding to the music.
The piano player gets hired for the show and there's a rivalry between him and the director for the dancer's attention to add some complexity. 
The rehearsal dancing is magnificent. A big name is supposed to headline the show and is introduced at a surprise birthday party for the producer. This is a Brazilian singer with a dance group behind her that knocks your socks off.
There are some other subplots, but they don't involve the dancing and singing or the music.
It ends with the opening night of Free Dance and goes dark. That performance is for the record books.
Like I said this movie is WWWWOOOOOOWWW!!!

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