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Swing

2004, Movie, PG-13, 104 mins

Swing: Review

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This sappy fable about music's power to stir the soul to life never finds its groove. "Do you swing, or do you just look the part?" asks spirited Tina (Constance Brenneman) when she spots Anthony (Innis Casey) lost in a syncopated rhythm of a big-band number. He just looks the part, it turns out, and is only at the swing club because he has friends in the band. But music is Anthony's great love, despite warnings from his old-fashioned dad (Tom Skerritt) that it's not a real career. Working at the family's San Francisco grocery store, now that's a career, and if Anthony doesn't stop messing around he'll wind up like his wastrel grandpa Joe, an alcoholic trumpeter who abandoned his family. But Anthony's beloved Uncle Bill (Jonathan Winters) counsels that life is too short to waste ignoring your heart. Bill is increasingly aware of his own mortality, especially after the death of his longtime sweetheart, Mrs. DeLuca (Jacqueline Bisset), who loved swing dancing and gave up on life when she realized she'd never cut another rug. By coincidence (or is it fate?), Tina is Mrs. DeLuca's granddaughter, and she and Anthony are introduced at the funeral. Unfortunately, he's already engaged to pragmatic Valerie (Dahlia Waingort). Anthony is making himself more unhappy than he realizes, working at the store and resenting the time away from his music, rushing to gigs after work and disappointing his bandmates (Mindy Cohn, Adam Tomei), always taking a back seat to Valerie's work. But it takes a mysterious, mature beauty in red to open Anthony's eyes. He stumbles into the jumping Club Jimbo, where everyone's dressed in head-to-toe vintage duds and dances like a pro, and the lady in red introduces herself as Christina (Bisset) and announces that she's going to teach Anthony swing dancing. If it isn't immediately clear that Club Jimbo is located somewhere in the Twilight Zone and swing is a metaphor for living, don't worry — executive producer/screenwriter Mary Keil will make sure to spell it out. The production design is gorgeous and Nell Carter, in the small role of nursing-home administrator Grace, delivers a show-stopping performance of "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby." But when a film's message is hammered home in dialogue as graceless as "You want me to follow in your footsteps...we don't wear the same shoes, Dad!" it's hard not to tune it out. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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