Body Language

I was, admittedly, very sceptical when I first heard of this film. A Dutch film basically taking on the successful Step Up-franchise is a big challenge, especially as it will take an enormous amount of effort to persuade the sceptics who believe that it doesn't get any better than Step Up. What more can one do than create a film that is full of great music (and I dislike R&B!), loads of dancing with quite an impressive array of brilliant moves and attractive leads? Well, how about making sure that all scenes are wonderfully lit and beautifully shot and editing the film in such a way that you can immediately see that these people really are great dancers, rather than trying to fool the audience with cheap editing tricks? Even the script is better than you would expect. It wastes no time on its strange premise and doesn't try to keep us wondering if this group of misfits is going to succeed. The story lines aren't particularly original, but it's quite refreshing to see a film in which dancing is not presented as a solution to all the problems, but as a means of expressing who you are and what you feel. In the end it's not the victory that counts, but the pains, the hardships, the love and friendship you meet along the way. This isn't highbrow stuff by any means, but dance flicks really don't get any better than this.