`Strictly Ballroom': The Cliches Are In Step

XXX 1/2 "Strictly Ballroom," with Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Pat Thomson. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, from a script by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. Egyptian. "PG" - Parental guidance advised because of language. --------------------------------------------------------------- Few movies manage to have it both ways as shamelessly or as expertly as the Australian blockbuster, "Strictly Ballroom."

On one hand, it's as familiar as an old MGM musical. On the other, it's a deft and quirky send-up of show-biz cliches, beginning in the form of a talking-heads "mockumentary" about ballroom dancing that's as ingeniously handled as the rock-star "interviews" in "This Is Spinal Tap."

"Did I fail him as a mother?" cries the horrified stage mother (Pat Thomson) of Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio), a top-flight ballroom dancer who has suddenly broken free from the standard dance steps and introduced his own flashy improvisations. The stern authority figure who runs the Australian Dance Federation (Bill Hunter) insists that there are no "new steps," and Scott's partner (Gia Carides) departs in disgust. The race is on to see who has the real power here, but is there ever any question?

Naturally there's a girl involved, an ugly duckling named Fran (Tara Morice) who offers to become Scott's new partner. She takes off her glasses, loses her frumpiness and shows him she can compete even with the professionalism of a glitzy dancer who goes by the name of Tina Sparkle. Both Fran and Scott come from dancing families, and their fathers find themselves getting involved in the outcome in a fashion that's as corny (and satisfying) as Fran and Scott's inevitable attraction to each other off the dance floor.

The result is a movie that allows you to be amused by the obviousness of its storyline while simultaneously inviting you to get caught up in it. "Strictly Ballroom" ends up being as romantic as it is funny, an exhilarating mixture of old and new ideas, performers, dance and music.

Old pros like Hunter (a fixture in Aussie films since the mid-1970s) share the screen with newcomers Morice and Mercurio, while "The Blue Danube" shares the soundtrack with an irresistible new version of Cyndi Lauper's 1980s hit, "Time After Time," that is teased onto the music track and eventually becomes Scott and Fran's theme. Old mistakes and festering resentments surface, via over-the-top flashbacks, while fresh follies threaten to repeat history.

None of this would click, of course, if the leads weren't so appealing, or if the young director, Baz Luhrmann, didn't demonstrate almost a sixth sense of when to lay on the schmaltz. Mercurio and Morice are always on his wave length, and occasionally they're allowed to express real passion in their roles. Fran's dressing-down of Scott when he arrogantly refuses her is genuinely startling. So is Scott's response to a third-act revelation that changes the way he sees his place in this hermetically sealed world.

Unless you're completely immune to the aggressive style of this kind of kitsch, you'll find yourself cheering Scott and Fran during the final ballroom competition, when the rules beg to be trampled on again.

This ending is no more believable than the climax of "Dirty Dancing," but it's salvaged by a sense of irony that allows pleasure without guilt.