Footloose

Directed by Craig Brewer, Footloose follows rebellious city kid Ren MacCormack (Kenny Wormald) as he arrives in a small Midwestern town and immediately begins shaking things up – with Ren’s ongoing efforts at overturning a ban on public dancing bringing him closer to the town minister’s (Dennis Quaid’s Shaw Moore) fetching daughter (Julianne Hough’s Ariel). Filmmaker Brewer, working from a script cowritten with Dean Pitchford, does a superb job of immediately getting the proceedings off on the right foot, as the film opens with an upbeat, spirited sequence that both establishes the storyline and pays homage to the original film. From there, Footloose unfolds in a manner that will certainly seem familiar to viewers familiar with its predecessor – as Brewer and Pitchford replicate many of the beats and plot twists contained within the 1984 Kevin Bacon starrer. There’s little doubt that Footloose benefits substantially from the ongoing emphasis on musical and dance numbers of an irresistibly energetic nature, with the film’s affable vibe perpetuated by the unexpectedly charismatic work from both Wormald and Hough (and it doesn’t hurt, either, that the pair share a great deal of palpable chemistry together). It’s only as the movie charges into its uneven midsection that one’s interest begins to wane, as the simple narrative is increasingly bogged down with interludes of a decidedly needless variety (eg the bus race) – with the film’s overlength ultimately preventing it from becoming the propulsive piece of work Brewer has clearly intended. Footloose ultimately does recover in its final half hour, though, as Brewer offers up a handful of genuinely engrossing moments (eg Ren’s impassioned speech) in the buildup to the expectedly vivacious finale – which effectively cements the movie’s place as an uneven yet sporadically enthralling modern remake.

**1/2 out of ****