A different loose is put on Footloose.
To put it bluntly, Footloose is a disappointment. A film that showcases how some narratives should be left to their own decade, this remake features an enthusiastic enough cast only to be let down by a confused script that’s clearly sterilised for adolescent audiences. Written and directed by Craig Brewer, who’s gritty storytelling style seems castrated here, producing a morally didactic film that doesn’t ring true to contemporary issues.
A carbon copy of the ‘84 original, Footloose follows Red McCormack, displaced in the sleepy town of Bomont after his mother’s failed battle with leukemia. Staying with his aunt and uncle, he discovers that an accident three years prior had activated an ordinance prohibiting rock music and public dancing, as the staunchly Christian community finds a correlation between the two with excessive alcohol consumption. Needless to say, McCormack and his sidekicks try to find a way to overturn the ordinance to enable the senior class to stage a prom. And as the title suggests, the rebellious youths dance in private and public spaces, both reminiscent of scenes from the original, along with updated dance sequences to place it in a modern-day setting.
Retrospectively, the 1984 original is clever enough to use dancing and the laws that prohibit it as a metaphor to display the decade’s tension between embracing and repressing sexual desires. The remake duplicates this, however, with its blatant use of sexual innuendos the metaphor is diminished in the process. What is left is a film that prohibits dancing – literally – an ordinance that feels out of touch in an era of pervasively promiscuous music videos. Effectively, Footloose, set in contemporary times, feels ironically out of date at the same time.
Kenny Wormald, who has been lurking in the background in other dance films, has very big dancing shoes to fill. In the original role that skyrocketed Kevin Bacon to mainstream status, Wormald dances with gusto with his credible dancing chops, but nevertheless lacks gravitas as a character that pushes for social change. The rest of the cast is fine if obligatory: Julianne Hough adequately embodies the virgin/whore dichotomy and both Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell bring well meaning to cursory characters.
Footloose will probably end up as an outlier for Brewer’s directing career. Responsible for films Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan, both brilliant in their redemption narratives, Footloose lacks both bite and grit in comparison. There’s a lack of focus in Footloose – out of character for Brewer in his normally confident story telling style and sexuality that’s off kilter in this film’s narrative. In fact, Footloose seems suspiciously manipulated and tamed down, to directly cater to a very broad audience and avoid offending anyone.
Brewer remaking a tale on teenage rebellion set in the American south is a film that could have had so much potential. And yet, Footloose is a pedestrian take on personal responsibility punctuated by dance movie cliches. The film seems to have undergone a lot of drafts and edits, that the only aspect of the film that’s authentic of Brewer’s style is its luscious cinematography of pastoral America. Footloose depends too much on the goodwill of the 1984 original and its theme song that – surprise, surprise – proves its production as completely unnecessary.
Reynald Castaneda