Cast: Charlotte Ayanna, Daryl Hannah, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Tilly, Christina Cabot, Sheila Kelley, Elias Koteas
Director: Michael Radford
Producers: Ram Bergman, Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones, Sheila Kelley, Dana Lustig, Michael Radford, Ernst Etchie Stroh
Screenplay: Michael Radford and David Linter
Cinematography: Ericson Core
Music: Tal Bergman, Renato Neto
U.S. Distributor: Lions Gate Films
There's a lot of dancing to be found in Michael Radford's Dancing at the Blue Iguana -- alas, the moves in this film aren't very accomplished. It's a little surprising and sad, considering that Radford opened hearts and tear ducts with his beautiful Il Postino, one of the best-received foreign films in recent memory. Dancing at the Blue Iguana more closely resembles a Cinemax Friday Night After Dark movie than something from a respected British director. Movies about strip clubs often turn into soap operas with plenty of T&A - and, despite its artistic pedigree, Dancing at the Blue Iguana is no exception. This ain't no Exotica (despite an appearance by actor Elias Koteas, one of the leads in Egoyan's masterpiece).
When introducing the film at its 2000 premiere in Toronto, Radford talked a little about how it was made, and the production history probably goes a long way towards elucidating why the final result is so lackluster. Dancing at the Blue Iguana began life as an experimental improvisation, with all of the actors developing their characters and scenes on their own during a five week rehearsal period. After that, Radford took pen to paper, tied the storylines together, then started filming. 23 days later, he had his movie - a cliched and confusing affair that routinely drops plot threads and characters without explanation on its way to a trite conclusion. This is the sort of innovative process that might have worked with accomplished actors, but not with the likes of Daryl Hannah and Jennifer Tilly.
Dancing at the Blue Iguana, which runs a too-long two hours, has four major characters (there are other individuals who float into and out of the picture, but, to be frank, I couldn't figure out what most of them were doing). There's Angel (Hannah), a vacuous dancer who wants to adopt a child but is being stymied because of her lifestyle. Jasmine (Sandra Oh) hides the heart of a poet beneath the hardbody exterior of a stripper. Jo (Tilly) has hostility issues that are exacerbated when she becomes pregnant. And Jessie (Charlotte Ayanna), the newcomer at the club, is the victim of an abusive boyfriend. There's also something really bizarre involving a Russian hit man, but to call this aspect of the film underdeveloped is an understatement.
Dancing at the Blue Iguana is engaging in the same way that all T&A movies are engaging - as eye candy. Those with a craving to see the breasts of Hannah, Tilly, Oh, and Ayanna won't have anything to complain about. On the other hand, anyone in search of a compelling story will. The "script" is pure drivel, with little character development or coherence. This, I suppose, is what happens when a director allows his actors to put together a movie - it's sort of like letting the inmates run the asylum. To be fair, there are a few nice performances, particularly those by Oh, Ayanna, and Kristen Bauer as a porn star. Tilly is engagingly over-the-top, and Hannah's role as a ditz seems well-cast. Overall, however, Dancing at the Blue Iguana is a little too slow to allow it to be embraced in the classically "so bad it's good" vein, although there is some campy fun to be had. Oh well, at least it's more honest than Coyote Ugly and more watchable than Showgirls -- not that such comparisons should be considered complimentary.
© 2001 James Berardinelli