Tango

There must be a fair number of rabid dance aficionados among the folks who make up the nominating committee for the foreign-language-film Oscar. How else to explain the inclusion of this occasionally stirring but more often soporific ode to the eponymous dance form in last year's lineup? Director Carlos Saura specializes in movies about fancy footwork, and his previous effort, Flamenco, was admirably pure, dispensing entirely with narrative and character to simply showcase one exhilarating performance after another. Tango, by contrast, is saddled with a tired self-referential plot about a movie director alternately struggling with creative block and wooing two dancers--one a former lover, the other an ingenue who's dating a mob kingpin. Sigh. The dances, for the most part, are terrific, but my most vivid memory is not of legs thrusting or cheeks pressed tightly together, but of a recurring, incredibly haunting theme composed by the great Lalo Schifrin (best known for his rousing theme for TV's Mission: Impossible, though he's also composed scores for everything from The President's Analyst to Doctor Detroit)--music so thrilling that it was sometimes almost enough to convince me that the movie was thrilling, too. Not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)