This is the classic girly teen film � sixteen-year-old Baby (Grey) arrives at a holiday camp with her sister and parents and discovers her sexuality, her independence, her courage, and, of course, some sexy moves.
There are several reasons I�m so fond of this film. Firstly, classic discover-yourself coming of age films are nearly always made only from the male perspective. Think The Virgin Suicides or Stand By Me, both excellent films, which both concentrate on a male adolescent worldview. Perhaps it�s Dirty Dancing�s female viewpoint which has led it to be dismissed as schmaltzy claptrap. Oh, all right then, it is pure cheese. Even so, I�m impressed that a film about the transition from girlhood to womanhood and awkwardness to confidence has been made without the female protagonist being a convenient, bikini-clad piece of eye candy. In fact, most of the eye candy in this film is male.
This film also describes the innocence and geekiness of the American sixties with a perfectly comic touch, without descending into pastiche. The camp itself is a middle-class Butlins affair. By day, the entertainments staff teach happy pensioners how to hokey-cokey. But as Baby discovers, things are a little different by night.
She walks into a fantastically raunchy (and indulgently eighties-looking) dance scene, led by Johnny (Swayze). She clearly fancies Johnny, who teaches her some moves whilst exuding sex. From here on, she becomes more closely involved with the lives and troubles of the ents staff.
Jennifer Grey herself plays her role fantastically, despite not having the innocent teen look. Baby has the natural gawkiness of an inexperienced teenager combined with the determination of a woman who knows her own mind. Grey does this perfectly, and with great comic timing. She�s simply a very good actress. The main comic relief however is Baby�s sister, a boy-mad, more stereotypical sixties teenager. Their relationship � venomous at times, but ultimately supportive � is, I promise you, spot on.
In the unrealistic time frame of three weeks, Baby and Johnny fall in love after she offers to take the place of his indisposed dance partner. Soon he replaces her father as Best Man in World, a move which is bound to anger her father who assumes Johnny matches up to his rebel image. Here everybody �learns something� as the plot unfolds � which is what makes it classic cheese.
I don�t know � girls�-night-in weepy with great soundtrack, and it�s sound feminism. All that pleasure, where�s the pain? Fantastic. |
