As with her previous feature, 2006’s Boynton Beach Club, director Susan Seidelman has opted to use South Florida as a test market for the release of Musical Chairs, her new movie about wheelchair ballroom dance.
Well-meaning but overly sentimental, it can expect a similar spotty critical and popular reception.
Still, talent from the film arrived in the area earlier this week for a little promotional push.
“This is our first big launch,” says Joey Dedio, who both co-produces the film as well as appearing in it. “We’re launching in New York and southern Florida because they’re my two favorite places. And I think this movie has got New York and Florida written all over it, man.”
Set in an outer borough of New York City, the movie revolves around Puerto Rican Armando (E.J. Bonilla), a custodian at a Manhattan dance studio, who dreams of not only becoming a dance star but of partnering with willowy blonde instructor Mia (Leah Pipes). Improbably, she begins to show him some attention, when she runs out into the street, gets hit by a car and becomes permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Sure, it could happen today, but it feels like a vintage ’40s movie plot device. And yes, Armando dutifully visits her at the rehab facility, where he cajoles her out of her gloomy mood and into practicing for the very convenient first-ever in this country wheelchair dance competition in — where else? — New York.
His role is riddled with clichés, but Guiding Light daytime soap veteran Bonilla still manages to be appealing. “I’ve never had a chance to dance for TV or film, but it’s something that’s really, really close to my heart,” he says. “I learned so much from the choreographers on this film. If I could sing, I’d love to be on Broadway, but I can’t.”
Dedio, who expects to produce three Latin-themed movies this year, became acquainted with Seidelman on a film they were preparing to make that never happened. “One of the co-producers of this film read the script and he passed it off to me. I liked it, saw a great vision for it and I immediately thought of Susan.”
He knew the story line had the potential to drift into schmaltz. “This film could have been borderline. It could have gone, for lack of a better word, ‘cheese’ or real. Or sentimentally maudlin,” concedes Dedio. “And I thought to myself, ‘I need the right captain on the ship, to not make it maudlin or cheesy. If it’s done right, it could really be something special.’ That’s what Susan has brought to it. Susan’s a special catch.”
Dedio is coy about the cost of Musical Chairs, acknowledging only that it is “low-budget.” He adds that Seidelman understood the financial limitations and between them, they compromised on major expenses. “She wanted a crane for three days of filming the ballroom scene, which I knew, from what she was storyboarding and talking about, would be extremely special. But I also saw the price of having a crane for three days,” he says. “We compromised on a crane for one day, the magic happens in the closing shot of the film, and we got it in one day instead of three.”
Although the cast is low on star wattage, Seidelman knows how to capture the pulse of the streets of New York, with a visual style that belies the penny-pinching. She needs to return to the edginess of her early work (Smithereens, even Desperately Seeking Susan), but she is remains a skilled director, even if Musical Chairs does not satisfy.
Producer Dedio deflects any suggestion that the movie is flawed. “I think the work speaks for itself,” he enthuses. “I’m a firm believer in the little movie that could.”
MUSICAL CHAIRS. Director: Susan Seidelman; Cast: E.J. Bonilla, Leah Pipes, Priscilla Lopez, Jaime Tirelli. Rated: PG-13; now showing in area theaters.