DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS
US, 2004, 86 minutes, Colour.
Diego Luna, Romola Garai, Sela Ward, John Slattery, Jonathan Jackson, January Jones, Mika Boorem, Patrick Swayze.
Directed by Guy Ferland.
Sixteen years between the very popular original and the sequel does not seem to be a good sign.
This one is just a time passer. Set in the Havana casinos in the late 50s, just before Castro’s revolution and the ousting of Battista, it is the story of a poor young man who has a talent for dancing but works in the grounds of a big hotel. He comes across a young American going to school in Havana while her father works in a local company. Her mother had been a professional dancer but is now very protective of her daughter.
If a screenwriting class were given this basic scenario and told to do a treatment in half an hour, what would they come up with? The boy is poor, his brother a revolutionary desperate to avenge his father; he gets sacked. The girl has a date with the son of the company owner who drunkenly comes on to her and she resists, helped by the poor boy who then teaches her some Latin American dance moves. They secretly enter the New Year’s Eve competition. They practice a lot – and are helped by Patrick Swayze looking older than he did in the original set decades later. The competition is held, the revolution is successful – but do they win? And that is, in fact, more or less what happens.
Diego Luna made an international impact in Y Tu Mama Tambien and has appeared in Frieda, Open Range and The Terminal. British Romola Garai is the would-be dancer. It is a slight entertainment.
1. A popular story? 16 years after the original? The presence of Patrick Swayze? Dance, Cuba, the touch of the exotic?
2. Cuban locations, the title, Havana, the luxury hotel, the views of the city, poor areas, the beach, the competitions?
3. The musical score, the range of songs, the dancing?
4. The film using a former, the variation on Romeo and Juliet, dancing, love, rebellion?
5. The setting, 1958, before the revolution? intimations of rebellion, the rebels going into action? The relationship between Cuba and the United States pre-Castro?
6. The family, the parents, the daughters, the parents in the past, the dancing, the mother giving it up? The country club style? The work in Havana, American companies? The white Americans and their sense of superiority, putting down others? The parents with the children? The children’s behaviour, the reaction to the dance competition, embarrassment, the mother and her being stern, change of heart?
7. The sisters, Katey, wearing the cardigan, quiet, reading the books, going to Radcliffe? Joining with the young people, the reaction to the racist putdown? Javier and his accident, his work, Katey apologising, the tension, seeing him dancing, joining in, the visit to his mother, the presence of his brother and the revolution? Going out with him, their being seen, the girls reporting him and his losing his job? The proposal about the competition, the many scenes of practice? Falling in love, the effect? Susie and her reaction, apology for reporting Javier, the reconciliation, the joining in the practices?
8. Javier, his family, his older brother, his father’s death, the mother and support? The revolution, his brother, looking down Javier and his work? As a character, the initial reaction to Katey, the dancing, the attraction, falling in love?
9. The country club types, the luxury hotel, at the pool, the looking down on the locals? The visit to the club? James and Katey’s mother’s approach? Hopes? The visit to the club, going to the dancing, his attempt to kiss her, her repelling him?
10. The competition, the dancing, in the final selection of three couples?
11. The final of the competition, the outbreak of the revolution, people fleeing?
12. Meeting with Javier, knowing that he had to stay, the Cuba was his home, that she had to leave, the sexual liaison? The separation? Her mother’s supporting her, acknowledging what heartbreak was?
13. Popular entertainment, relying on the title from the original?
