[.ca] Dancing At The Blue Iguana

Don't pass it by:
Too many people (including myself) passed this by upon its release, and thankfully with the advent of Video and DVD, it may get a second shot at life. Cast off any aspersions that this is another T & A movie. There is nudity, but it's (for the most part) tastefully done, and not always gratuitous. Unlike such moronic fare as "Striptease" or "Coyote Ugly", this film aspires to much higher ground, more along the lines of Atom Egoyan's brilliant "Exotica". *side note* like that film, it includes a lot of Leonard Cohen and features noted Canadian character actor Elias Koteas! Coincidence? Daryl Hannah acquits herself admirably, and Jennifer Tilly does a great job of combining pathos and comedy (the S & M scene is hysterical), but the standout here is Canadian actress Sandra Oh ("Last Night"), who plays outside of type and has you alternatively seduced and saddened along with her character. Not to be ignored; rent it, then tell a friend. Films like this are few and far between.

Too lousy to be campy:
This movie is so poorly directed and acted (Hats off to Darryl Hannah for a horse faced perfromance) that it can't even be enjoyed as a midnight movie. All the characters are underdeveloped and the story so muddled, you actually get bored when the girls are stripping. The movie is really long and horribly improvised. Sandra Oh is the only credible actress and does her best to carry all the scenes. The documentary about real strippers (on the dvd edition) and where the story was inspired, is what should have been released as a movie. It's more interesting and gritty.

Not what one would expect...:
When I first looked at the cover and saw that the movie had Jennifer Tilly in it, I figured it was just another soft-core quasi-porn film and put it back on the shelf. Months later, out of boredom, I finally rented it. The movie turned out to be quite interesting and not at all like what the cover would lead one to believe. Jennifer Tilly is still Jennifer Tilly of course but, fortunately, she has a minor role. I highly recommend this intelligent film.

Where's the soundtrack?:
I enjoyed this movie. The acting is good and it did seem a bit slow, but I was always interested to see what happen next. But I have searched for any listing of the songs that were featured and have failed to find them. Why wasn't the soundtrack for this movie released? Great songs!

See. This. Film. NOW!:
Whatever reason you may have had for initially watching DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA -- and I suspect for many of you, it was the promise of seeing a number of moderately well-known actresses writhing and flexing in the buff -- you'll finish this film for an entirely different reason: because you care what happens to the people in this film. There are several performances of great subtlety and nuance in DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA, performances of such heartrending mournfulness you'll come to feel that Sadness, Loss and Grief are as much characters in this film as any of those portrayed by the especially gifted ensemble of actors. Both the men and the women in this film are such heartbreakingly damaged goods, as we come to realize near the end, they are already irretrievable, overwhelmed by their alienation and disenfranchisement. It dawns on us that there are no "happy endings" for these people. We realize much too late that, even when we first met them, they were already forever lost to the rest of "polite" society. Everyone in DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA so desperately wants to connect to someone else; not for sex, not even for love but just to connect, to feel something legitimate, to feel something authentic, to feel something genuine. Every character in this film is desperate to feel something else -- anything else -- besides pain, loneliness and heartache that they will make the worst choices imaginable. They will strike up the unlikeliest friendships and the most horrifically inappropriate relationships one could possible imagine; relationships doomed to failure from start to finish. I was especially impressed by the fact that Michael Radford chose to take every "Hollywood" convention and turn it inside out. There are no backstories in the conventional, "Hollywood" sense. There are "origin stories." There are no schmaltzy redemptions. There are no false rescues. There is not a single deus ex machina anywhere in sight. The days begin, the days progress and the days end, only to repeat anew. I also have to mention a few particularly wrenching performances -- Sandra Oh is amazing as Cathy/Jasmine, a stripper, yes, but also a literate and gifted writer who composes poetry of such forlorn longing that one can almost taste the want and the need in her heart but, despite her tremendous gift (and even the faint promise of a budding love), she is unable to rise above her self-imposed limitations. We are sad for her as we realize that only person holding Cathy back is Cathy herself. Jennifer Tilly turns in an astounding against-type performance as a stripper of astounding emotional brittleness named Jo, who will literally do anything to keep the money rolling in. Unfortunately, Jo's emotional well-being, already held together by no more than spit and baling wire, takes a turn for the worse when she discovers a life-altering fact about herself. Sheila Kelly is a study in "less is more" understatement. Her character, Stormy, is something of a cipher, but not because of Kelly's performance, but because that's who Stormy IS...and Kelly portrays the thorny and complex Stormy brilliantly. And I defy you to not squirm like a reluctant voyeur when you see how Stormy explores her "there's-something-not-quite-right-going-on-here" relationship with Elias Koteas, a shadowy man from her past. My highest praise goes to Daryl Hannah, who gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Angel. As a person, as a human being, Angel is so grievously damaged, so grievously flawed, you just know she's never had a decent chance at life, much less a good life. But, at the same time, Angel so adorable and so sweetly lovable and so sweetly simple and so sweetly needy that she will break your heart. Two moments in particular stand out: 1. When Angel applies to be a foster mother, and tries to articulate to the social worker why she would be a good mom, but doesn't have 1/100th the education she needs to express herself properly and; 2. When, after applying, Angel accidentally locks herself out of her car trying to take a picture of herself in front of a Blue Iguana billboard advertising her, only to be "helped" by a police officer who discovers a half-smoked joint in her ashtray. Her visible, palpable anguish at the thought that being arrested could disqualify her as a potential mom will stab you through the heart. This film defies easy classification, which is just as well. It is supposed to be a difficult film to pigeonhole and I, for one, could not possibly be happier for it.