She Dances Review: A Charming Story!
The relationship between a father and daughter is one that possesses its beauties and obstacles. For many young girls, their father is the first male role model they hold close to their hearts, showing how the role of a man is vital to the connection between a unified family. It is also hopefully, the one man they can always count on. For fathers, the connection they forge with their daughters allows them to let go of the hard exterior they have been conditioned to display and express a softer side. However, not every family has a “perfect” father and daughter relationship. In fact, most of the time it is much more complicated than this.
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Claire and her father Jason do not have the closest of bonds. After Jason and her mother Deb’s divorce and the loss of her brother, they rarely see each other despite their obvious longing for each other to be back in each other’s lives. As Claire gets ready to compete in her last dance competition, Jason is tasked with taking her and her friend Kat to the competition like old times. As they begin to experience each other’s company again, Jason and Claire’s walls begin to break down as they begin to rebuild the connection they once had. She Dances is a warm hug of a film that utilizes its indie production to the fullest. It takes a familiar feel-good and coming-of-age structure and defies typical angry teenager conventions to develop its own take on broken families.
Where it would have been easy to have Claire angry at her father for not being there in her life after her parent’s divorce, Gomez and writer Steve Zahn have developed a script that pivots to exemplify the longing both Claire and Jason feel for one another, that usually takes films until the final moments to show. This gives Claire a more mature angle that is played beautifully by Steve Zahn’s real daughter Audrey and allows the film to focus more on when the characters will be able to come together rather than if they will. As a result, She Dances is able to show how grief and shared feelings of loss create a longing for connection between a father and daughter.
The chemistry between Audrey and Steve Zahn as on-screen and real-life father and daughter is a gift to watch. Audrey being a dancer in real life creates a feeling of realism as the audience watches the two portray their characters on-screen while also seeing the parallels between them in their real lives. Steve Zahn being able to work with his daughter in a film about dance opens up the idea that Zahn being a successful actor must have put some distance between his daughter and himself growing up where missing something like a dance competition is not out of the realm of possibility. As a result, being able to work on a film like this must have been a beautiful experience for the two to portray this story while also feeling like their story was guiding the film as well.
She Dances also does a wonderful job of exhibiting the beauty of female and male friendship through Claire and Kat’s relationship as well as Jason and his business partner Brian’s relationship. Just from the couple of scenes we see of Claire and Kat together in the beginning, the film does an excellent job of clearly showing the decades these girls have grown together and the years this sisterhood has lasted.
Aubrey and Mackenzie Ziegler are a joy to watch together, feeling so authentic in their connection with one another. Where the film feels like a surprise is in one of the most beautiful scenes in the film between Jason and Brian where two men are able to open up with one another and show the strength of male friendship. This film is able to exemplify a number of relationships between family and friends that is the heart of the story.
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She Dances is a tender look at how loss creates cracks in relationships during a time when togetherness is the key to heal all wounds. It is also a charming story of how dance can be used to express oneself in a way words never could. Rick Gomez has created a film that is impossible to not swoon over for its realistic look at broken families and the beauty of dance and connection.
‘She Dances’ Rating – 3.5/5
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