Swing Into Romance

You mean to tell me that in a show centered around organized competitive dancing they couldn't find a male lead who at least appeared to be in dancing shape? Or, a guy who could pass as being in dancing shape? Instead of a middle aged dad bod actor? Danica dipped into her Dancing With The Stars experience, and even has some on screen dance numbers with a former DWTS pro, but the male lead is almost comical as a dancer.

The movie has a family theme, with ok entertaining writing. All it missed was moderate believability.

As for the romance portion of the movie, there was very little chemistry between the two leads, to make up for the lack of authenticity in the dancing.

Danica Mckellar sure looks great and not just for her age. I have to hand it to her even though I'm not usually a huge fan of her perpetually worried expression. David Hayden Jones, even though younger than her, looked a little creaky in comparison, but that could have been his role.

The story was a little creaky as well. Former professional circuit dancer Danica returns home for a visit on her way to a great job in Seattle. She learns that her parents' general store is in trouble due to an upcoming increase in the rent. She is determined to "save" the store even though the store doesn't really look like it wants to be saved. Very sparse in the merchandise department which is carefully arranged and covered with fallish decor to disguise the lack of products on the shelves. Her parents don't seem all that desperate to keep the store open either. They were probably looking forward to retirement. But Danica cannot be stopped. She is going to enter a dance contest to win the prize money which will save the store. Single Widower David H-J ends up being her partner and love ensues. Can rejection of her great city career and embrace of small town life be far behind?

The infinity long garlands of leaves used in last week's movie have made their way over to this one. And what with being moved from farm to store to dance studio to bank to two homes to the auditorium of the contest, they are looking a little tired. I love stories with continuing characters and am looking forward to meeting them again in next week's "Fall into Autumn" offering.

I dvr this movie and watched it today. This is a very good movie. As usual Danica is always at her best. Her partner did a very good job. I enjoyed this movie because it wasn't the typical cookie cutter movie. The movie kept you on your toes and never sure how it will end. The DEWTS dancer was a good addition. And brought a little completion to the lead. Glen did a nice job. And the dancing was excellent my Danica with Gleb The surrounding cast were very additions with their limited roles. The young girl was cute in her role. No over acting.

I hope GAC continues with plots that are not your typical HM This had nice interaction between the two leads Also a little bit sexy dancing.

I highly recommend this movie.

I have watched some Christmas movies with Danica, but I didn't know she can dance so well, really! I read more about her and my jaw dropped when I realized that she wrote 10 books in educational math and the first one was a New York Times bestseller!!

I love dance/ballet movies/series, so I liked this more than other regular, simplistic romance/Christmas movies. I liked the male lead in Dear Santa and I expected a lot from this movie, especially after the first dance sequences from the past where Danica danced herself in the contests, and did not use a double. It is a nice movie, with some very good dance scenes that actually enhance a lot its quality. It's kind of an usual story, so don't expect too much from here, but I recommend it for the dances.

6.3 stars.

I like both lead actors, but this film is primarily about an adept female dancer (McKellar) as she attempts to teach a deconditioned man to swing dance for a contest. Her family needs her to win the contest to save the family store. She used to be a professional dancer and won many competitions years ago, but had a falling out with her previous Russian dance partner, and subsequently gave up dancing. She eventually went into finance. The lead male was a decent dancer when he was a young boy, but apparently hasn't danced in decades. He is an accountant.

Whereas she was a professional, he was barely an amateur. As the two of them are practicing, it's quite obvious that he has two left feet and there is no way a man of his low caliber could win a contest at this level. He is also overweight and fairly clumsy. It's somewhat of a farce and inconceivable to imagine them winning. This would be like Bradley Cooper's character winning in 'Silver Linings Playbook'. We all know he has no chance, but Cooper was somewhat lithe, and at least they made it interesting with the side bet on the NFL game. 'Swing Into Romance' has no such excitement.

Unfortunately, where the romance lacks, the dancing doesn't make up the difference. Something is missing and I can only guess that it's a lack of chemistry. This movie fell flat and it's an outlier in that respect, because almost every GAF, UP, Hallmark movie between 6.7 and 6.9 stars is amazing. If I want to watch a movie only for dance I'll watch 'Step Up' or 'Dirty Dancing'. I'm looking for an original family movie with dance AND romance and 'Swing Into Romance' should be called 'Swing into'.