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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 7 June 2007

Patrick Chesnais performs his best moves in a Parisian dance studio in Not Here To Be Loved

A last tango in Paris with a touching twist

NOT HERE TO BE LOVED
Directed by Stephane Brize
Certificate 15

THE French do it so well, don’t they? The theme of this touching romance could be a remake of the 2004 Richard Gere-Jennifer Lopez movie Shall We Dance? – which in turn was a re-run of a 1997 Japanese film directed by Masayuki Suo.
This time the middle-aged lawyer cutting in on Gere’s turf is bachelor Patrick Chesnais, jaded and fed-up with his job and his loveless life. He spots a dance studio across the street from his office in Paris, with the seductive music of the tango pouring from its windows to entice him in to enrol.
He is drawn to a tall, lissom girl half his age (Anne Consigny), who appears to be a loner herself but, in fact, is on the brink of marriage to a writer (George Wilson) too immersed in his work to notice her own longings.
The pent-up passions between old and young catch fire on the dance floor as they both realise that a dream which can change their lives is within their touch. But will they grasp the nettle – or stay in the safety of their own world?
Gere, you may recall, ended up going in for a dance contest. The charismatic Chesnais conveys his loneliness and heart-searching with scarcely a word, while Consigny has the vulnerability of a young Audrey Hepburn.
One for romantics everywhere.

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