Mad About Mambo Reviews

Combine a heartwarming story about two kids determined to win the big dance competition with one about an amateur soccer player determined to make it to the pros. Throw in a dollop of snotty private school brats vs. scrappy public high schoolers, add a hint of the Troubles and you have this cheerful Irish picture, which hardly seems big enough to hold all its disparate elements. Lucy McLoughlin (Keri Russell, of TV's Felicity) is part of Belfast's elite: Her father (Brian Cox) owns a hugely profitable chain of do-it-yourself home improvement stores, she attends a tony prep school and has a handsome, wealthy boyfriend (Theo Fraser Steele). Danny Mitchell (William Ash) has none of the above; he's Catholic in a Protestant city, lives with his single mother in a low-income housing development and is about to be thrown off his school's soccer team unless he gets serious. Inspired by a Brazilian soccer star who talks about the rhythm of the game, Danny formulates a plan. He figures that since the only rhythm Irish Catholics have "is the rhythm method, and we know that doesn't work," he'll take Brazilian samba lessons at a local dance academy. And that's where he meets Lucy, whose heart is set on winning the Regional Latin Dance Finals. Danny steps in when her boyfriend is injured, and soon he's falling for his stuck-up partner. This genial little picture, which has been kicking around for more than a year, doesn't have a mean bone in its body. Sure it's silly and formulaic, and no, you never believe a minute of it. But Ash is a charmer, and Russell (whose Irish accent is passable) flings around her fondly remembered mane with flirtatious gusto. And why, you may ask, is a film about samba called Mad About Mambo? Beats me.