- Charming
- Fun
- Watchable
- Affirming
- Pro-marriage
- Predictable
- Title: Shall We Dance?
- Director: Peter Chelsom
- Cast Includes: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Lopez, Stanley Tucci
- Date Released: October 2004
- Category: Romantic Comedy
- Plot: Plot Married for around 19 years, John and Beverly Clark have a good life together and a loving marriage.
- They are healthy, financially well off, their two kids appear to be normal likeable teens, their home is beautiful, etc.
- Yet John isn't happy and doesn't know why. The movie shows how being in a rut can threaten even successful marriages.
"We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet ... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things ... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."
We agree with Tawnya Schilt, a writer for the Marshfield News Herald, who wrote a week before her wedding: "The quote [from Shall We Dance?] mentions nothing of ownership or power over someone else. It infers a sharing, a beneficial symbiosis between two people who have found each other and want to see how their journey will unfold together. Both equally independent, but with mutual dependence and reciprocal obligation."
Source: "Marriage means having a witness for life", October 21, 2007.
The other scene that touches my heart is when Richard Gere's character, John Clark, is shown on the escalator, dressed impeccably in a tux, and holding a single red rose for his wife.
The movie makes us laugh, smile, and remember the importance of communicating with one another and not allowing our marriage to fall into a rut.
I highly recommend Shall We Dance?. It is a great movie to watch together.
