Julianne Hough comes across in quite a different way than Lori Singer (who was first famous as the cello-playing all-rounder in the TV series Fame). In contrast to the ballet-dancing, tall, slim Singer, Hough is a cute, pocket battleship of a girl-next-door, with great big blue eyes. Julianne Hough is excellent in her role, as are Dennis Quaid and Andie McDowell, who play her parents. Both Lori Singer and Julianne Hough are acknowledged to be excellent dancers, though in different eras, directions and styles. Both are all-round dancers. Julianne Hough is a professional dancer who acquired fame in Dancing with the Stars, and as a Country singer.
Kenny Wormald does a fabulous job as Ren McCormack, and projects quite a different personality than the taciturn Kevin Bacon. Both actors did a wonderful job in their respective movies, but the 2011 actor had a certain sparkle that was appropriate to the expectations of modern audiences.
Dennis Quaid took on the role that John Lithgow played in the older movie, a tough act to follow. But he did a better than adequate job.
Andie McDowell's role was earlier played by Diane Weist. I adore Diane Weist, but I must confess that I can't remember enough of her performance in 1984 to compare with Andie McDowell's excellent job in this remake.
The writing in the 2011 movie is, in my view, excellent. Writing a teen movie is not easy, since you have to capture the feel of the speech and the mood of young people, both the mood across the country, and the mood of the particular locality in which you have placed the action. The humor and repartee has to be right, the references have to be right; a tough order for middle-aged writers, who have to base it all on the young people they know, or failing that, on other teen movies of the time! The writers on the present screenplay is: Craig Brewer (from a story by Pitchford). The writer for the older film was Dean Pitchford. Standards for the writing in this genre have risen, in my opinion, and Pitchford and Brewer have made good use of the intervening decades to refine the story and the script.
The music for both movies was excellent, and the remake makes use of almost all the songs in the original, with necessary changes needed to handle modern teen dances. There is a charming scene in which two little girls, Ren's cousins, sing "Let's hear it for the boy," a signature song in the 1984 movie, sung by the beloved Deniece Williams. The little girls are seen on either side of Andie McDowell, in the inset. (It turns out that Dean Pitchford is some sort of literary and musical genius, and co-wrote many of the songs in both movies.) This remake is probably one of the most successful in the past few decades.
Arch
No comments:
Post a Comment