Dancing Queens

There is a certain comfort in predictability. Especially in a feel-good movie. First, one has to be in a mood to play along, second suspending one's belief is an absolute necessity and third, embrace the obvious, no matter how implausible. All of this would help if you were watching this movie. I did and it helped, immensely.

What a surprise with this movie! It is a little gem, wonderful acting, funny and human, beautiful dancing sequences too.

The cast is absolutely perfect and the story is not simplistic. Instead, it leaves many loose ends, which I appreciate. The actress who plays the main character is simply studendous. There is no way to avoid smiling as the story takes you to a place of acceptance of who you are (and who everyone around is) and what you want. From there, obviously, there is a whole lot of light because when you accept yourself completely, you just glow!

Ok, so, it's got every cliche in the book, but this is a movie made with a terrific cast and with so much heart. I was thoroughly entertained and moved especially by the very unaffected performance of Molly Nutley and. That heartbreaking scene when she pours her heart out to her landlady and her tears come so easily and convincingly. The rating so far really deserves much better and I'm sure as it gets more widely seen it will rise.

Films from Scandinavia are kind of anti-Hollywood. The naturalism in the play, the clarity of the dialogue contrasts with the completely over-the-top play and chatter in US comedies. However, Dancing Queens shows that the result is not necessarily better. Especially when one tries to lump too many things together, so that the result is a tired stew that burbles along and has the appeal of a politically correct TV film. Unfortunately, this is the case with many Netflix productions and here, too, it is probably not only a rather small budget that is to blame for the fact that some things don't work. All the characters in the film are charming and likeable, that's for sure. A few of them are believable and only Molly Nutley in the lead role is really good. The drag queens seem like a very tired rehash of Ru Paul's Drag Race and actually the whole story is very far-fetched. The dance scenes develop zero dynamics, are cut hectically and don't really bring any momentum into this tired joint either.