Lean rom-com-cum-road movie
Let The Dance Begin (R13, 99 mins) Directed by Marina Seresesky Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett
Forty years ago or more, Margarita and Carlos were the most celebrated tango duo in Argentina. They were the “2/4 Kings’’ who danced for royalty and the Reagans, toured the world and were fêted on the cover of The New York Times. But, the years accrued and there is only so long that one couple can hold the public’s imagination.
Even in Argentina, the tango and its greatest exponents eventually became passé.
Carlos moved to Europe and the decades were kind to him. In Spain, he is a household name in a local TV soap and his wife and adult daughter can see through his delusions and deceits clearly enough to know that he is still a man worth loving.
And then the phone rings. It is Carlos’ once-best-friend Pichu, telling him that Margarita has died by her own hand, and will he come back to Buenos Aires to speak at the service?
Carlos flies out that night, of course. He assures his wife Elvira that he will be fine travelling alone.
For even though Carlos and Margarita were once a legendarily passionate and storied couple, with their faces plastered on every gossip magazine from Formosa to Tierra del Fuego, what could Elvira possibly have to fear, now that Margarita is dead?
At which point, anyone who has ever seen any movie ever made, or, indeed, just watched the trailer of this one, will probably begin to smell a rat.
Let The Dance Begin is a rom-com and a road movie. By the time that overcomplicated set-up has been shuffled into the wings, what we are left with on the screen is a lean and only sparsely adorned tale of a trio of 60-somethings making a three or four-day drive down country on a simple quest.
In the leads, Dario Grandinetti, Mercedes Morán and Jorge Marrale are reliable and clearly perfectly cast.
The scenery is spectacular, the characters are likeable and broadly sketched – and the contrivances are so nakedly piled upon each other that the only thing to do is to sigh, smile and just let the story play out.
This is a film about people well into the latter decades of their lives, so mortality and regret will make an appearance, but nothing here will upset you – or jar the tone.
If you’re in the mood for a photogenic good time, played out by some of Argentina’s best and most beloved actors, then Let The Dance Begin will be a perfectly fine way to pass 100 minutes of your time.
In Spanish with English subtitles, Let the Dance Begin is screening in select cinemas nationwide.