Strictly Ballroom; Film on Friday

I was going to do a review of the Wolf of Wall Street, which we watched over two nights last week, but when I sat down to do it, I realised I had disliked the whole thing enough for its excessive sex, swearing and drug abuse and the whole attitude to money and more money that I didn't want to point it out to any one, except as a way of saying that Leonardo Di Caprio in this movie would have made a better Jay Gatsby than the Leo Di Caprio who did turn up in The Great Gatsby. It's as though he has a fatter and less charismatic twin who turned up in Hoover and Gatsby while the slimmer (not absolutely slim) but much more captivating lively Leo was partying in Wall Street.


So, not that one then.

Instead I'm plumping for this;



Strictly Ballroom, Bas Luhrmann's first major film and based strongly in the world of competitive dancing that his parents apparently were well into. It's a real fairytale, the ugly duckling who turns into the partner that wows, the boy who stands tall and dances how his heart and not the rules dictate and the film that taught me that "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

I watched it years ago and really enjoyed it (enough to have the DVD and watch it a few more times) but it had never struck me that I hadn't watched it with my beautiful Princess. Now, she loves Strictly Come Dancing, remember, and had me dancing around the living room until the last series when my knackered knee kept me still, so I figured that the dancing element of the story would be interesting to her as well as the romance. She is only 12 and still a great romantic.