DVD Review - Footloose (2011)

Kenny Wormald in "Footloose"

The premise of this movie is that a town has made public dancing for people under 18 illegal, but the question is how could a town pass such a law and the ACLU not do or say anything to stop it. It's such a ridiculous thing that this movie can be nothing but a comedy. Yet, director Craig Brewer has too many dramatic moments and treats things too seriously.

I think this movie would work either as a total comedy and satire or without the premise at all. Without the premise though, there is no second half. However, a skilled screenwriter, which I'm not sure is present here, could have thought up something slightly more clever than what transpires after the first hour of this movie. Lame doesn't even begin to describe the second half. There are echoes of Pleasantville (1998), but those echoes are very faint.

This movie is produced by MTV Films and clearly its target is the average MTV viewer. Except, the average CMT viewer is more likely to get a kick out of this. The movie opens with and in later scenes embrace two-step and country line dancing.

The soundtrack, which is actually very good, is more southern-influenced than anything else. With the limited number of songs nominated at the Oscars this past year, I wouldn't have minded seeing "Where the River Goes" by the Zac Brown Band get recognized.

Kenny Wormald stars as Ren MacCormack, a former gymnast from Boston who comes to live with his uncle Wesley down south. He's slightly troubled and his defense is being a smart ass as well as an aggressive dancer in empty warehouses. He learns about the town's ridiculous law by way of the girl in whom he's interested. Her name is Ariel and her father was the one who developed the law.

In terms of plot, there really isn't much more. Dennis Quaid who plays Ariel's father scowls a lot, but the movie is quite hollow. Wormald has a few good moves, but I almost wish this were more of a musical where even if he weren't singing, he would at least have more opportunities to dance in the vein of West Side Story (1961) or something.

Wormald does have a brief Hairspray (2007) moment where he's almost the only white kid dancing with a group of black kids. His character does teach his friend Willard, played by Miles Teller (Rabbit Hole and Project X), how to dance, but the scene is just repetitive and boring. There is this Rebel Without a Cause moment involving school buses that was just the icing on top of the cake of stupid. It just had me rolling my eyes.

I will say that I enjoyed seeing Patrick Flueger who is an actor with whom I fell in love years ago. He's done mainly television, including two shows I really enjoyed, The 4400 and the short-lived Scoundrels. He also had a really great turn in an independent film opposite Ron Perlman in The Job (2009). It's just sad that his character here only serves to be a stereotypical, Nascar-loving, chauvanist. Flueger is literally only there to be the bad guy who gets punched in the end by Wormald in order for Wormald to prove himself a man.

Two Stars out of Five.
Rated PG-13 for some teen drug and alcohol use, sexual content, violence and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 53 mins.