‘Shall We Dance’ crowd-pleasing but predictable

In theaters

SHALL WE DANCE?, directed by Peter Chelsom, written by Audrey Wells, 106 minutes, PG-13.

Peter Chelsom’s “Shall We Dance?” a remake of Masayauki Suo’s 1996 Japanese romantic comedy of the same name, is essentially the same movie charged with an American sensibility. In this case, that means more drama, more gloss, less grace and less sophistication. It’s a small movie that has been supersized.

Suo’s version featured a glum, middle-aged Tokyo salary man finding happiness in the physical, emotional and spiritual release of ballroom dancing, which freed him so completely that he felt ashamed to share it with his family. After all, they weren’t responsible for his newfound high. He also chose to dance secretly because, in Japanese culture, one doesn’t exactly exalt openly in the cha-cha. Since no secret so rich can be contained in a movie whose point is to reveal it, complications ensued.

Chelsom’s version of the story follows suit, with Richard Gere as John Clark, a disenfranchised Chicago lawyer unhappy with life’s daily grind, unhappy that his wife, Beverly (Susan Sarandon), is too busy to spend time with him, unhappy that middle age has essentially knocked him on his rear end.

John rides the subway to work. One evening, he sees from the train a beautiful young woman (Jennifer Lopez) standing above him in the window of Miss Mitzi’s Dance Studio. She’s a vision of poise and high cheekbones, so pretty you’d swear she’d freshen the city air if she didn’t look quite as miserable as John feels.

Intrigued, John decides to visit the studio to learn who she is. What he finds there is threefold: The woman’s name is Paulina, she’s as cold as a Chicago winter and his destiny, curiously enough, is to dance.

Indeed, it’s the tipsy Miss Mitzi (Anita Gillette) herself who sweeps John into the drama of ballroom dancing, which proves considerable when he meets his classmates – brassy Bobbie (Lisa Ann Walter), homophobic Chic (Bobby Cannavale) and husky Vern (Omar Benson Miller) – all of whom are there, you sense, to find themselves. When Beverly suspects that John’s long evenings at the office might be the result of an affair, she hires a detective (Nick Cannon) to find out more. As you might have guessed, complications ensue.

As directed by Chelsom from a script by Audrey Wells, “Shall We Dance?” is well-acted, crowd-pleasing schmaltz with no surprises. The plot is a predictable, straight shot to the end. That doesn’t mean it fails. Though it isn’t as rich as the original and the ending slumps into a sleigh of suburban whining, there’s plenty to like here, particularly from its secondary characters.

As Bobbie, Walter is wild, likable and loose, taking her inspiration from Bette Midler and Ethel Merman. She makes their quirks her own. Gillette is sweet as Miss Mitzi and Stanley Tucci, as the high-strung, high-kicking Link, is uncontainable. Gere and Sarandon let the others shine, as does Lopez, who does the unimaginable. She retreats into herself for three-quarters of the movie until the script eventually demands that she tart it up.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

VAN HELSING, written and directed by Stephen Sommers, 124 minutes, rated PG-13.

As chaotic and as overblown as it is, “Van Helsing” never wants for energy, it doesn’t take itself seriously, and as a whole, it’s a rather fun movie loosely based on Bram Stoker’s famed, stake-wielding character from his 1897 novel, “Dracula.”

The film, which Stephen Sommers based on his own script, follows last year’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” in that it gathers together several well-known monsters and villains from the past, and allows them to go at each other’s undead throats for the better half of two hours.

Hugh Jackman is Van Helsing, who has had something of an extreme makeover since Anthony Hopkins played him in 1992’s “Dracula.” Indeed, the only thing sagging on this Van Helsing is the brim of his hat. Otherwise, he’s buff and young, a swarthy hero multitasking for the Vatican.

Van Helsing has been charged to kill Count Dracula, played by Richard Roxburgh in the sort of buckles-and-brocade attire favored by Michael Jackson during his “Bad” period. Drac’s drag is unsettling, yes, but more disturbing is that in order to kill the count Van Helsing first needs to go through Frankenstein’s Monster (Shuler Hensley), who turns out to be an intellectual softy, and the Wolf Man (Will Kemp), whose bite apparently holds the key to killing Dracula. Who knew?

Tossed into the mix is Kate Beckinsale’s Anna Valerious, who sounds like an invasive species of plant for good reason. Onscreen, Beckinsale uncoils like a vine, undulating in ways that would make the folks in a red light district blush. Her rolling Romanian accent gives the film the necessary jolt of camp it needs, but then so do the three shrieking, winged vamps (Josie Maran, Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca) who take to the skies to do Dracula’s dirty work. In a bloodthirsty, dead-three-centuries sort of way, they’re all perfectly charming if a bit high- strung and unmannered, which proves perfect for this empty but entertaining blockbuster that embraces the same qualities.

Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.