(No spoilers review)

Throughout the year I keep my eyes open for those special little movies that seem to fly under the radar. Last year it was Dear Frankie and Millions. The first gem of 2006 is Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School.

Watching the trailer you might think that this is another in a long line of quirky romantic comedies featuring dancing as a plot line. If you thought that you would indeed be right….well, half right anyway. Frank Keane is a breadmaker, and a widower…one who continues to acutely feel the pain of the loss of his spouse. The therapy group that Frank attends with other widowed men appears to be going down the same road that Frank is, the road to nowhere. That is until a meeting with destiny leads Frank Keane to Marilyn Hotchkiss’ infamous Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. One lindy later Frank begins to see a possible new rhythym to his life.

That is the half of the film you see in in the trailer. The half you don’t see…the half that adds poignancy, depth, and meaning to the good but otherwise cliched tale, is the intersecting story of a character played by John Goodman. There is a reason that John Goodman is seen in the trailer in name only and to discuss this plot line more would be to ruin the experience. Suffice it to say that it is a great storyline, John Goodman is terrific and he is not alone.

For a small film Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School boasts a stellar cast of actors/actresses that must have agreed to do this film simply out of the love of making fun movies. Many of the actors/actresses in this film headline other films but here they play small but significant roles that really matter. Robert Carlyle plays Frank Keane as the kind of warm, caring everyman that you immediately embrace. Frank’s therapy group led by Rafael Horowitz (David Paymer) includes small roles by Sean Astin, Adam Arkin, Ernie Hudson, and Miguel Sandoval. They are all great but Sean Astin’s opening scene is the best. Marilyn Hotchkiss’ studio is run by her daughter Marieene, played to prim and proper perfection by the lovely Mary Steenburgen. By now you probably get the idea that this is an ensemble film. The dance class is filled with actors and actresses playing small, quirky, fun roles. Standing out in the crowd is an entertaining performance by Donnie Wahlberg as a white trash Fred Astaire wannabe and of course Marisa Tomei as the eventual love interest of our intrepid protagonist Frank. Marisa Tomei is one of those actresses who just looks beautiful no matter how made up she is and in this very understated role she really shines. Rounding out the cast is John Goodman whose opening scene pulls you into the emotional core of the film and a fun cameo by Danny Devito.

Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School started out life as a short film 15 years ago written by director Randall Miller and his wife, producer Jody Savin. What makes this interesting is that Miller uses the footage of the short film as the flashback sequences in John Goodman’s tale. The flashback scenes from Marilyn Hotchkiss’ school are shot in a grainy, home movie quality that sets the mood perfectly for those scenes. In what I think is a fun piece of symmetry in the film, Elden Henson plays a small role in the bakery and is also the child actor who played the lead role in the short film 15 years ago. I sat through the whole film thinking how remarkably alike both actors looked and was thrilled to find out that they were indeed the same person.

Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School is obviously a labor of love. It is a small film with a message that we may hear over and over in our daily lives and yet is one we should really take to heart. It is the message of embracing life. In a world where most movies are striving to be blockbusters, Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School is striving to be just that…charming. It is a fun, romantic film with a melancholy yet hopeful undertone that adds weight to the forumlaic elements of the film. From the opening song to the ending song the film just makes you feel good. The dancing is not outstanding but that isn’t the point. In one moment late in the film Marisa Tomei’s character turns to Frank and says, “You’re a good man, Frank Keane.” And that is the point. He is a good man and in his quiet way he points us towards that same path. Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School may not win any awards but it won me over and if you see it will hopefully do the same to you.

Silent Hill is the latest in a stream of video-game-to-film projects that have been flowing into theatres over the last few years. Silent Hill, as a game and a film, is meant to do one big thing and do it well: creep you out. Happily I may report that it succeeds in that area quite well.

The story in video game movies is often hard to follow, many times owing to the fact that the game itself had little story line to begin with. Horror games of this type generally have a bit more of a plot, though one filled with occasional moments of incoherence. This confusion is present at times in Silent Hill though to a much lesser degree than negative reviews led me to believe.

Silent Hill is the story of a little girl whose sleepwalking leads to precarious predicaments, causing her parents much consternation. During these nightly jaunts she utters the words “silent hill”. A google here, a google there and soon mother has run off with daughter to the mysterious town of Silent Hill against dad’s wishes in the hopes of finding a cure. Carelessness and the ghostly image of a girl in the road leave mom out cold. When she awakes her daughter is missing and the nightmare begins.

Silent Hill exceeds expectations in two key areas: visuals and the use of sound. Making Silent Hill into a movie has been the pet project of Brotherhood of the Wolf director/screenwriter Christopher Gans for the past several years. His love of the source material and his expertise in creating spectacular imagery shows in the look and feel of Silent Hill. This film has all the visual elements that one wants in a good horror story. Intense camera angles, an eerie lighting scheme, and some of the most scary sets I have seen in a long time are but a few of the things that make this film great to look at. Horror staples like the old abandoned schoolhouse and the sinister hospital are used to great effect in Silent Hill as well. The color palette and tone set the mood throughout the entire movie and the special effects are top notch. Fire plays a key role in the plot and the special effects crew does a fantastic job with using the pealing, eroding effects of fire during scene transformations. The creature effects are top notch as well and rival the evil incarnations of Clive Barker’s imagination. This isn’t your old-timey horror flick, here there be monsters and they are very scary.

Sound is another area in which Silent Hill shines. The use of sound and (as Jeff pointed out) the strategic use of quiet or muted sound really accentuated the mood of the film. Silent Hill is a movie that benefits greatly from a good surround sound system and the theatre we were in was anything but silent. The sound effects were jarring in their intensity and were a fantastic overall piece of the film. The combination of incredible sound and stunning visuals are easily among the best I have seen in the horror genre and rival those in other film genres also.

Silent Hill‘s rough edges were in the story department. That is not to say that the story was not entertaining, but there were some flaws. Most notably before the climax of the film is a long piece of exposition accompanied by flash back visuals that could have been much more effectively communicated had they left the narrative out. The scenes themselves told the story, I did not require spoon feeding to accompany them. The narrative piece goes a long way towards grinding the intensity of the tale to a halt. To its credit Silent Hill ratches up the intensity (and subsequently the gore) immediately after this.

The performances in the film were very good. Radha Mitchell fit very well into the role of a strong, protective mother. She is very attractive but her looks don’t detract from the film. The film makers could have easily went off course with this role by hiring someone who looked pretty but was unbelievable as a person forced to brave horrifying circumstances to save their child. Mitchell was fantastic. Sean Bean was great in a somewhat limited role as the father in the film. The young girl playing Sharon, Jodelle Ferland, was terrific. She played both the innocent and the haunted child very, very well. Rounding out a great cast was Deborah Kara Unger and very menacing performance by Alice Krige. All of the roles had an aspect of being one-dimensional but the above actors all brought a little something extra to their performances that really showed in the final result.

I went into Silent Hill with very low expectations. Surprisingly I found a very entertaining creepy film. There are enough pure scary moments, paced quite well, that make this a terrific movie to terrify. The foreboding, menacing feel of the first three quarters of the movie gives way to some fairly intense gore at the end but even that didn’t feel so much gratuitious as it did just plain evil. Silent Hill at its heart is a tale of vengeance and it is safe to say that punishment is repaid in kind. While the closing scene left me a bit cold my opinion of the overall film was that it met the creep-out factor of some of the great scary computer games I have played. If you see it, go prepared to be amazed by the visuals, wowed by the sound, at times puzzled by the plot, and know that you will leave and never look at nurses…or barbed wire…the same again.