Shall We Dance?

If Shall We Dance? is as simplified as one of those color-coded mats that show you exactly where to plant your feet in a proper fox trot, it is also sweetly entertaining and sincere.

This charming comedy uses dance as a metaphor for individual expression, risk-taking and intellectual flight.

The movie works on several levels, so if viewers don't understand the social commentary, there's still an amusing story with intriguing characters.

There's a certain sadness to the film, and it's matched by an ample dullness.

Shall We Dance? isn't a film about taking a prize; it's a film about taking a step.

This disarming and delightful tale prescribes rumba replacement therapy for male menopause and has a tonic effect on the audience, too.

A treasure of humor and heartbreak that transcends cultural boundaries. While its sentimental rhythms sometimes move too close to the cloying, it still manages to lift our hearts and set our toes to tapping.

What's more rousing here is the notion of a life awakened -- the rewarding sight of a mediocre man blossoming and becoming confident.

The lesson has to do with resolving the lure of a dream and coming to an acceptance of real life.

Shohei's search for inner peace is a roller-coaster ride -- and modest, fancy-effects-free quest that finds you laughing out loud one minute and shedding silent tears the next.