Sweet Hearts Dance (1988)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Ernest Thompson
Directed by Robert Greenwald
Starring Don Johnson, Jeff Daniels, Susan Sarandon, Elizabeth Perkins, Kate Reid

Released by: Columbia Tri-Star
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Nope; full screen fun
My Advice: Rent it

Wiley and Sandra Boon (Johnson and Sarandon, respectively) were high school sweethearts who got married, but those days are fading rapidly into the past. Now they are approaching middle age and have three children they are doing their best to raise in a small town in Vermont. Sam Manners (Daniels) also hung out with these two in high school, but he has never married. Instead, he has grown up to become the principal of the high school they all attended together. Wiley and Sandra are dealing with their changing lives together at the same time that Sam is falling in love with a beautiful newcomer to the town named Adie Nims (Perkins). While Sam and Adie's relationship is new and exciting, Wiley and Sandra are trying to find the ways to keep their relationship afloat.

This is a neat little movie. The core ensemble of this movie really play off each other very well. Each of the couples' relationships are very believable and they really worked hard at making their on moments on screen seem completely natural and spontaneous. Daniels and Johnson work together wonderfully and their more weighty scenes are definitely proof of this. If there is a problem with the movie, it would be the fact that the story is broken up into little vignettes that always seem to take place around the major holidays (i.e., Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.). Each of the scenes is introduced with a title on the screen announcing what holiday we are in. I really think the movie would have been more effective if they didn't break the story up like this. Still, if you can get beyond this little bump in the road, the movie is quite touching and, thanks to the actors' work, you really begin to care for these characters.

The DVD is a bit of a disappointment. For starters, it is only available in full screen format, which is always a bummer. Even the worst movies on the planet deserve to be presented in widescreen format: at least that way, if nothing else, you get to see every last detail of what made the film bad. When you take the complete lack of special features into account, this disc becomes a waste of a good DVD. Most of these stars are still around, so there is no excuse for not having a commentary track on the disc. They all seemed to have a good time making this movie and it would have been nice to hear them talk about the process. This is the only feature that this DVD begs for. I mean, there's no need for a making-of feature, or anything like that, although even that would have been a nice gesture towards...something.

So, this movie is good enough to see at least once, but not worth shelling out the dough to add it to your collection. Rent it and enjoy.