2mg

Dance movies usually keep my interest and Let It Be Me did just that. However, the two main couples had very little chemistry and as I watched it I would have been like with a better cast. Jamie Goodwin was wooden and mechanical. Aside from looking great from the hairline down, he was barely adequate. Jennifer Beals is a very good actress and tried hard to create something with dance instructor Jamie Goodwin, her former high school love. She and her fiancé played by Campbell Scott were a more credible couple. Yancy Butler was very smooth, but she looked bruised and unhappy during her non-dancing scenes. The third couple played by Leslie Caron and Patrick Stewart were lovely, charming and pleasantly predictable. They grounded the movie with their mature romance and skillful dancing. Their wedding at the end of the film was the most satisfying scene. The other dance sequences were good, but not great.

The scenes of war and life in the mid 19th century were an education for those of us who live in modern times. Animals were not romanticized as they are today. They were useful tools for labor and food. Family and neighbors were necessarily close in order to survive the harshness of existence. War was presented in all of its horror.

However, I feel that these points were not subtle. Ideas and characters were presented as black or white, good or bad. Therefore, I found Cold Harbor to be expertly done, but was too flat and simplistic.