Don't miss this one - unless your life has always been perfect and easy.In that case, this movie would not be for you! If you have had sorrow, loss, and disappointment, you will find redemption and compassion in this heart-felt movie.All of the actors are amazing. The story line is precious and so compelling. I am sharing with all of my friends, because I don't have any "perfect" people in my list of friends any more!I wonder how I missed this one, except that I have always been so "behind" everyone else, that I wouldn't have "gotten" this movie 8 years ago. I do now. Guess it's a "maturity" thing. Invest a couple of hours. You will be so glad you did. Although there are incredibly sad elements to this movie, it ends on such a note of completion, that you will come away feeling able to embrace all of the mistakes (or losses) in your life, and to not only forgive yourself, but to applaud your own courage and survival!

It seems that dance-themed movies are almost by definition, if you will pardon the pun, a little offbeat. I suppose one could make pseudo-intellectual references to dance as metaphor, but, in the end, I think dance is dance and that's just fine. And so is this movie – just fine, wonderfully, delightfully fine.Writer/director Randall Miller deftly employs the frame story literary device to weave two disparate narratives into a third, unifying story line. While this literary conceit was necessary to incorporate a short film of the same name that Miller made fifteen years previous to this film, it is nonetheless cleverly handled and flawlessly executed. One actor even appears in both time-lines. As a child he plays one of the central characters in his boyhood story, and as an adult, he plays the colleague of another central character. This is done imperceptibly, and is almost in inside joke to those who are aware of the earlier film.Without giving too much away, the story lines all revolve around the eponymous Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School; how one character, recalling his youth there, struggles to return for a rendezvous he promised as a boy to make on this day, and how his struggle leads a grieving widower to make his own journey there, where he will find, well, you'll have to see for yourself what he finds, but, believe me, it's worth it.The cast is surprisingly heavy with A-list (and some solid B-list) talent. Frank Keane (Robert Carlyle: The Full Monty) is a widower going through the motions of his life as a baker, unable to get past the suicide of his wife. Carlyle excels at bringing unexpected layers to his roles, and this is no exception. His character encounters challenges and inspirations that become life changing, and Carlyle renders them perfectly.John Goodman is one of those actors who, despite being gifted, are almost, if you will pardon another pun, too large a personality in real life to be effective in most roles. Here, the circumstances surrounding his character make it work beautifully. Similarly, Danny DeVito, who has but a cameo appearance, is delicately downplayed with surprising effectiveness. One almost wonders how Miller managed to assemble this impressive cast, as if he won some Hollywood casting lottery, but the fact that he is Rhea Perlman's cousin might explain at least DeVito's willingness to do the film. Rhea's father even appears.I have always loved Mary Steenburgen, and her more or less title role as Miss Hotchkiss is no disappointment. Her characteristically cracking voice is just what the character needs to seem somewhat surreal. Oscar® winner Marisa Tomei delicately inhabits the female lead of the story, and brings closure and redemption to the bereaved widower. Camryn Manheim has a brief but powerful appearance, and even Sonia Braga was somehow convinced to join a cast inexplicably overloaded with talent. Add to that Sean Astin, Adam Arkin, Ernie Hudson, and even a deliciously counter-cast Donnie Wahlberg, and you begin to see what I mean about the surfeit of talent.All of that talent wasn't for naught. The ensemble melds beautifully, delicately supported by Mark Adler's gorgeous soundtrack and all orchestrated with preternatural grace and subtlety by auteur director/writer/producer/editor Randall Miller. Films like this go largely unnoticed, and most of its fan base comes from people who caught it as part of some tedious and pretentious film festival or other. I was fortunate to have placed the film in my Netflix queue so I could watch it sans pretense, where I could experience it personally, as it was meant to be seen.Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School is simply a delight not to be missed.

Some promises, like the one Stephen Mills made to Sue Gober when they were young, are often forgotten as life gets complicated. It's hard to imagine someone will still remember a pledge to meet with a childhood sweetheart forty years after it was made. Such is the premise of this delightful movie in which fate plays a big part of the story.When Frank Keane, a baker, meets Stephen, little does he know how his own life will be transformed after he is asked by Mills to go in search of the woman he promised to meet. What Frank finds is a group of lonely people that meets for a weekly ballroom dancing lesson led by the daughter of the founder of the school.Frank who is going through a rough time after his wife committed suicide, is caught by the gentle folks at the academy. Most of all, by Meredith, a young woman whose life is not exactly perfect and who suffers from beatings at the hand of a rough step-brother. Frank Keane, in turn, is part of a group of grieving widowers that meet to find a cure to their depression.Through flashbacks one gets to know Stephen Mills' story and what happened to him as a grown man. Paul's recovery from the sad state his wife's suicide has meant for him has a lot to do with his passion for the newly discovery therapy: ballroom dancing, as taught by the famous Marilyn Hotchkiss' daughter.Randall Miller expands on his 1990 short film of the same title giving it another perspective on the basic idea behind his first movie. There is a definite improvement as the film has opened up to better results. Some of the original cast return to repeat some of the original roles.The best thing in the film is Robert Carlyle. He is not a matinée idol in any shape, or form, but playing against type gives him an opportunity to show his versatility. Marisa Tomei, seen as Meredith, does a fine work as the shy Meredith. Donny Wahlberg plays the brutish Randall Ipswich. Mary Steenburgen makes a fine Marianne Hotchkiss. John Goodman plays Stephen Mills. The large supporting cast makes an excellent contribution.

CHARM SCHOOl stars Robert "Ravenous" Carlyle as a grieving widower who comes back to life after a run-in with errant motorist John Goodman sends him to an old-fashioned dance school, where he encounters new love, new life and new meaning. Marissa Tomei (where has she been?) plays his newfound love, an emotionally fragile woman who is in the thrall of her mean-spirited stepbrother (Donnie "Sixth Sense" Wahlberg), who also attends the dance studio. Nobody and nothing is quite what it seems in this simple little tale of love lost and found, as you will discover by the end. The biggest shocker involves Carlyle tracking down Goodman's long-lost love, which I guarantee will have you talking about the movie long after it is over. A wonderful film, populated by some of Hollywood's most recognizable faces (David Paymer, Ernie Hudson, Camerin Manheim, Adam Arkin and Danny DeVito) in small roles -- although this is the kind of movie where no role is really small. Along with the wonderful Carlyle and Tomei (I kept saying to myself, imagine running into Marissa Tomei in a rundown dance studio) Mary Steenburgen absolutely shines as the oddly repressed daughter of the woman who founded the dance school. Steenburgen's character hysterically launches every session by remarking that her mother, who has been dead since 1972, "cannot be with us this evening." Based on a short film from 1990 by the same director. Make sure you watch that short, which is included on the DVD and narrated by William Hurt. And keep a box of tissues near at hand.