Dancing Girls

Lauryn Kirk (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) from a small Indiana town goes to audition for the Chicago School of Music and Dance. They want real emotions and reject her. Her car gets towed and she is unwilling to admit defeat to her brother. She gets a place to stay from Dana (Tessa Thompson) who helps get her a bookkeeping job at the burlesque club Ruby's. Dana is one of the dancers and Russ (Riley Smith) is the music director.

This is a worn-out formula. The plot is a copy of every other one of these dance movies. This has to distinguish itself with great dancing but there is nothing exceptional here. Winstead is not a big enough star to carry this although she does have that wide-eyed innocent quality. She's tall and lanky. She fits the character but the movie is not special.

All this is is a dancing version of Coyote Ugly. Dancing is good but if you have watched Coyote Ugly, you already know what's about to happen.

Examples: In both movies there is a colleague who is horrible to them right through the movie...

In both movies there is the guy who pretends to be the manager...

In both, its all about getting the audition

In both, there is a family crisis where they both decide to abandon their dream and run home but first have a good old fashioned drama scene where they abandon their boyfriends...

Seriously, if you have watched Coyote Ugly, don't bother watching this one.

It was no surprise that, throughout Make It Happen's 80-minutes duration, one would find this latest dance flick (helmed by occasional music director, Darren Grant) riddled with the most tiresome and obnoxious clichés that the genre could offer across its existence. Yes, to be fair, the film seems to be borrowing each scene from similarly plotted features. Yet, in one way or another, Make It Happen seems to present all of them just that better.

One of the flick's greatest and most undeniable asset would be lead Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who displays some of her best work here. It's hard not to swoon for Winstead, who switches from ferocious, limb-swinging urban dancer to ingénue, down-to-earth, corn-fed small town girl with impressive and flawless flair. She seems born for the role, radiating an unbelievable amount of charm, and drawing life into a well-written character. Despite having been supplied with a prosaic script, Winstead performs admirably well, both on and offstage.

Regardless of Winstead's poetic beauty, the film lacks a substantial screenplay, and every line feels tacky and uninspired. It's safe to say that the film is no more scripted than it is choreographed. Adler's libretto felt unremarkably familiar, and, with or without hindsight, you could almost tell how the film will unfold before the lights dim down. It was fortunate that the rest of the troops, though never coming close to stealing the show (leave that to Winstead), played their - stereotypical - parts adequately, with the provocative Julissa Bermudez standing out exiguously.

The film's lack of flesh on show is an affront to the cast's sensual, slinky sex appeal, and it is hard to find that the clubgoers are majorly made up of cheering females, rather than drooling guys. However, the dances are already enticing in nature, so more skin would not have been necessary, but simply more effective. Speaking of, the dance sequences are entertainingly beautiful, aided with a catchy soundtrack, and as a whole, undeniably a visual and aural delight - a testament to the eyes and ears.

Make It Happen is not much a film rather than a montage of energetic dance romps, connected solely by filler sequences enlaced with drama and romance. That said, they are good sequences of drama, as Winstead's verisimilar approach to her character enlivens each of the film's dramatic scenes. The same cannot be said for the sequences of romance though. Try as they might, the pairing of Winstead and Smith lacks chemistry, and as a result, the film is forced to present a dull romance that you couldn't care for. It doesn't help that Smith's character is near unlikable - as another critic put it - "a smarmy douche".

All the same, Grant's experience in the music video industry helped a lot here. Stunning cinematography entwine each scene, and the dance sequences are nothing short of being optically magnificent. Although there might not be much to entertain those with a passionate dislike of this variety, it is nevertheless a fine installment into the dance genre. Make It Happen passes as both a short, drama film entwined with great dance sequences, and an overtly long, energetic music video interweaved with filler drama scenes. However you put it, I believe Make It Happen is still a decent film.

Verdict: Darren Grant has crafted an enjoyable popcorn dance flick, an improvement over the recent additions to the genre. There's still much room for improvement, but Winstead's soulful performance atones for much of the flaws. Nevertheless, its feeble screenplay and extremely predictable fade-out could not go off easily unnoticed.

I saw Make it Happen this morning and thoroughly enjoyed the film. I found the plot to be intelligent, original, interesting and emotionally engaging. I thought all of the characters in some way evoked my sympathy and the standard of acting was excellent. I enjoyed the romance and felt there was real 'chemistry' in those scenes. There wasn't as much dancing and music as I expected, but for me that didn't matter since I was more interested in the story. (Having said that, I enjoyed what dancing and music there was very much!) I don't see why anyone of a romantic nature (male or female) wouldn't thoroughly enjoy this film. It has everything I look for in a movie - and plenty of it. Highly recommended.

How do you approach a dance movie? I feel that the story takes a firm back seat, in providing a wafer thin excuse to string some opportunities for dancing onto the screen. Granted there are some excellent story lines that come once in a while, but most times, you'd get the rudimentary dancer character who has to prove that he/she can dance to a group of nay-sayers consisting of peers or snooty judges, fall in love, and of course to rise above all challenges to claim the prize / gain acceptance from the community.

Brought to us from the writer of movies such as The Step Up and Save The Last Dance movies, here comes something that doesn't disappoint, in that it sticks to formula so that you know what to expect, nothing more or less. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who played John McClane's grown up daughter in Die Hard 4, and scream queen in Final Destination 3) takes on the mantle of the downtrodden dancer wannabe Lauryn, who felt that she's responsible for the family garage business, until she decides to pursue her dream by leaving the small town, and head for the bright lights in the big city.

Her audition with the Chicago School of Music and Dance was a complete washout, and confidence shaken, takes to the temp-ing at a lounge called Ruby's, where she helps to cook the books. But you can bet your last dollar that this is the venue with which she'll fall in love, with a fellow music engineer Russ (Riley Smith), while lapping the coincidental opportunities for her to showcase some of her moves, before becoming an established member of the pussycat dolls of dance.

Story aside, which packed a wallop with superficial antsy challenges from established peers, an unforgiving brother who couldn't fathom her passion, and a boyfriend who can't wait to get into her pants, coupled with the nagging thought of failure and that she's no good for the Ivy League school for dance, we're really here for the set dance pieces, aren't we? There aren't many of them which stood out, given that they aren't as innovative or fused some genres together to come up with an amalgam of moves, though the character of Lauryn probably was supposed to show how an unpolished gem got to go through the paces at a club, before coming through and achieving success by her measure.

And the lounge setting does provide for some sensual, provocative costumes to drape the lithe and tall frame of Winstead's, though I had to admit I thought her assortment of hoods, wigs and the likes provided for some convenient cover-up for a body double to take over, until of course I read that she had some background in dance. There are some routines that I genuinely liked, but the one at the finale, which should be the mother of all moves in any dance movie, was the one that seriously packed a punch, with improvisation, and a combination of ballet with hip-hop, without being too obvious or conscious about it.

Yes, you've seen one you've seen them all, at least for the narrative aspect. If you're patient to sit through the dramatic portions, you'll find yourself cheering with the crowd when the dancers take to the platform. Soundtrack too was nothing short of expectations, and I give it brownie points for the inclusion of a disco retro.