Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Reviews

DIRTY DANCING fans shouldn't count on having the time of their lives at this reimagining (not a sequel, not a remake... a reimagining) in which choreographer JoAnn Jansen's experiences as a teenager in Cuba are meshed with DIRTY DANCING's story of racy dance moves and mismatched lovers. The major difference between this year's model and its predecessor is the setting: Instead of unfolding in the Catskills in the early 1960s, the action now takes place in Havana in November 1958, right before Cuban revolutionaries deposed U.S.-friendly dictator Fulgencio Batista. Bookish American high-school senior Katey Miller (Romola Garai) finds herself transplanted to Havana when her father (John Slattery) takes an important job with Ford. Her sister and mother (Mika Boorem, Sela Ward) take to life at the lush Hotel Oceana as if to the manor born, but Katey has trouble adapting to her swanky new surroundings. After catching a glimpse of one of the hotel waiters, Javier (Diego Luna), dancing in a public square, she becomes entranced with the uninhibited Cuban approach to moving with the music. He spots her in the hotel, making a dismal attempt to mimic his movements, and invites her to experience local nightlife at La Rosa Negra. She's already committed to going to the country club with proper society boy James (Jonathan Jackson) on the same night, but convinces her straight-laced date to escort her to the steamy bar, where she falls for both the sexy dancing and sexy dancer Javier. After Javier looses his job when he violates hotel rules about fraternizing with guests, Katey convinces him that they should combine her proper ballroom skills and his Latin moves at an upcoming Latin Ballroom competition with a cash prize. Knowing that their relationship would scandalize just about everyone, they conduct both their rehearsals and their budding romance in secrecy. The big night is overshadowed by worries about the looming revolution, the threat of discovery by Katey's parents and their dance-floor skills, all of which are of roughly equal importance in the film's scheme of things. Relative newcomers Luna and Garai are fairly convincing in their dancing scenes, but it's hard to disguise the fact that they have little, if any, real romantic chemistry. The sizzling Latin-infused soundtrack, a cameo by original dirty dancer Patrick Swayze and several homages to the first film can't compensate for the fact that Katey and Javier's dramatically expedient relationship is nowhere near as interesting as the Cuban Revolution, which is relegated to window dressing.