In case you couldn't tell, we are rolling right into the D's. There's some good stuff under this letter. Dance with Me is not one.Now I love dance movies and I have tried to like this movie but I just can't.
Rafael (Chayanne) is a Cuban immigrant who has come to Texas under the sponsorship of a man who used to work on cruise ships with his mother, John Burnett (Kris Kristofferson). Burnett runs a dance school that is barely scraping by and agrees to hire Rafael to be the handyman. Rafael immediately falls for Ruby (Vanessa Williams), a former pro Latin ballroom dancer who is trying to get back in competition. Ruby is still smarting over her divorce from dance partner Julian (Rick Valenzuela) and doesn't want to date. But, of course, Rafael wins over Ruby and the entire studio by showing that he can dance just as well as any professional.
Since I watched it now for the second time, I've been trying to figure out what bothers me about it. 1) There are too many side characters each trying to have their own slice of the plot, so I didn't end up caring about any of them. 2) Ruby is a brittle, bitchy, unsympathetic character, to the point where I questioned why Rafael was trying so hard to get with her. 3) The sub-plot about Burnett being Rafael's father and Rafael being afraid to tell him was a drawn-out, desperate plea for love, as well as weak writing. I think this movie's gravest sin is that it feels too close to Strictly Ballroom, but not as good.
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