"Dancing at the Blue Iguana" Review

"Dancing At the Blue Iguana"

Video Release: December 26th, 2001

MPAA Rating: R (for pervasive sexual content/nudity, language, some drug content and brief violence)

Running Time: 121 minutes

Distributor: Lions Gate Films

Production Companies: Moonstone Entertainment (Hotel, Cookie's Fortune), Bergman Lustig Productions (Kill Me Later), Dragon Pictures (Welcome to Sarajevo), Gallery Motion Pictures

Cast: Charlotte Ayanna (Jessie), Daryl Hannah (Angel), Sheila Kelley (Stormy), Sandra Oh (Jasmine), Jennifer Tilly (Jo), Elias Koteas (Sully), Vladimir Mashkov (Sacha), Robert Wisdom (Eddie), Kristin Bauer (Nico), W. Earl Brown (Bobby), Chris Hogan (Dennis), Rodney Rowland (Charlie)

Director: Michael Radford (1984, Il Postino, B. Monkey)

Note: This film reportedly evolved through improvisation by the ten central actors during a long rehearsal process that lasted several months.

Premise: This ensemble drama follows the lives of five strippers who work at a San Fernando Valley club, the Blue Iguana.

Genre: Drama

Official Site: Iguana-Movie.com

The Review...

"Dancing at the Blue Iguana" doesn't tell a story so much as it intimately gazes into the intersecting everyday lives of five exotic dancers who work at an LA strip club (the Blue Iguana of the title, naturally). Angel (Daryl Hannah) is a bubblehead who dreams of taking on a foster child, but is unqualified in pretty much every way imaginable. On the other end of that spectrum, tough-girl Joe (Jennifer Tilly) is pregnant with an unwanted child, and seems angry at the world about it. When she's not administering C-note hummers in the club's back room, the distant Stormy (Sheila Kelley of "Singles") tries to forget her true love, who happens to be her brother. Jasmine (Sandra Oh, as far from "The Princess Diaries" as one can get) has the heart of a poet but has great difficulty sharing it. And new girl Jesse (Charlotte Ayanna of "Carrie 2") just wants to be loved, but only gets knocked around for her troubles. Meanwhile, club owner Eddie (Robert Wisdom) and assistant manager Bobby (W. Earl Brown, Cameron Diaz's retarded "There's Something About Mary" brother) try to hold it all together.

Much of the girls' personalities are developed, and emotions demonstrated, in the way they move on stage, deftly captured by Radford. When she's not at the pole, Hannah's featherbrained Angel is almost painful to watch, in the way Gilligan or George Costanza of "Seinfeld" is - you just know she's gonna screw up somehow, and you cringe waiting for it to happen. Wisdom's club owner Eddie develops beyond the preconception of what the owner of such an establishment may be like, revealing unexpected layers.

But it's Sandra Oh who owns this movie. Her character, who just wants to be "normal" but ultimately determines it's virtually impossible, is by far the most interesting of the bunch, and her arc has the more poignant resolution. Secondary characters such as an abusive rock-star wannabe (Rod Rowland of "Space: Above and Beyond"), Stormy's lost love (Elias Koteas, appearing just long enough to make you shudder), and a Russian hitman (Vladmir Mashkov) who's infatuated with Angel drift along the periphery, but frankly don't have much of a legitimate impact - I personally would've instead preferred more fleshing out of Ayanna's forlorn Jesse or additional time with Oh's fascinating Jasmine.

Now the question that we all want answered is: "How do the women look?" With the exception of Tilly (who spends most of her time wildly overacting, her beefy bod clad in leather), the actresses willfully and skillfully disrobe and take to the pole like professionals, writhing about on the polished stage while soiled, crumpled dollars cascade around them. I've never seen Ayanna before, having passed on "Carrie 2: The Rage", but she's an angelic face atop an absolutely sinful chassis. The 41-year-old Hannah appears in better shape than women half her age - both she and Oh (could she have a more perfect name for such a film?) display tight and lithe gym-toned frames. Kelley too looks exceptional, if memory serves - it was honestly far easier to be mesmerized by her facial expressions, a peculiarly hypnotic blend of isolation and introspection.

All in all, the film is meant as a character study rather than how such a club actually functions. Eschewing a traditional screenplay, director Michael Radford ("Il Postino") gathered his cast and had them create their own characters, making the film largely the result of their improvisation. Provocative without being exploitative, there is a definite entertaining energy to "Dancing at the Blue Iguana", mostly thanks to its effective ensemble. In the end, however, it may be more compelling as an experiment than as a film. Hats off to these ladies for having the guts to make this movie.