Something happens when she hears the music… It’s her freedom. It’s her fire. It’s her life.

Bring the movie Flashdance up in a conversation with a 35-year-old woman and she will get a special look in her eyes. There’s something magical about that movie. A massive hit in its time among teenage girls, it really was much ado about nothing, which even the 35-year-old woman might confess today. But still, what a feeling…

We are introduced to Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals), a sweet 18-year-old Pittsburgh girl who is a welder by day, dancer by night. She has this great act at the local nightclub, involving water and sexy music, and that’s where her young attractive boss, Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri), discovers that one of his welders hides a great body and talent behind those overalls. Alex has a dream of being accepted at a prestigious dancing academy, but she is too scared to do something about it, too afraid of not being good enough. Hanna (Lilia Skala), an old lady Alex knows who used to be a Ziegfeld Girl, tries to talk her into going to an audition, and Nick does what he thinks is necessary to make her go, but it’s no easy decision for her. This is the central “conflict” of the movie (yeah, it’s very lame) and the filmmakers try to compensate by portraying how rough and demeaning the other choice is for Alex, which means continuing at the nightclub or even worse, start working the pole at a strip joint. It’s not exactly compelling stuff, but if you want to get all academic about it you could view Alex as being trapped in a decidedly male world of welding and go-go dancing, longing for a feminine life of classical dancing.

But there are no academic reasons why the girls loved Flashdance. Tell me a preteen or teenage girl who hasn’t dreamed of escaping their boring lives; this film takes those dreams seriously and portrays them in a very attractive way. Ms. Beals got her breakthrough and she’s not bad at all; all she needs to do to win us over is flash her wonderful smile. Another reason why the movie was a hit is the music; the soundtrack is full of engaging ‘80s-style tunes, not least the Oscar-winning title track, and the filmmakers don’t mind taking a break now and then from telling their story and just focus on a hot, sweaty song-and-dance number. I guess they can do that easily since there is virtually no story to tell. It’s just a number of sequences put together whose only purpose is setting up the pay-off, which is the audition. Well, Jennifer Lopez is just one of all those girls who fell for it; she honored that sequence in one of her videos.

The story is thin and childish, with a romance between Beals and Nouri that doesn’t exactly make sparks fly, but this is nevertheless flashy, fairly entertaining stuff. Some of the music sequences get your adrenaline going and Adrian Lyne (who made the teen drama Foxes (1980)) knows what buttons to push. But does he feel that it would have hurt the film too much if some kind of real conflict were to be introduced? I don’t know. The audition alone can’t save the movie from being a bit of a bore during the final half hour.

Flashdance 1983-U.S. 95 min. Color. Directed by Adrian Lyne. Music: Giorgio Moroder. Song: “Flashdance… What A Feeling“ (performed by Irene Cara). Editing: Walt Mulconery, Bud Smith. Cast: Jennifer Beals (Alex Owens), Michael Nouri (Nick Hurley), Lilia Skala (Hanna Long), Sunny Johnson, Kyle T. Heffner, Lee Ving.

Trivia: Demi Moore was allegedly considered for the part of Alex; David Cronenberg and Brian DePalma were allegedly offered to direct the film.

Oscar: Best Original Song. Golden Globes: Best Original Score, Original Song. BAFTA: Best Editing.

Published 2006-01-03 14:32