Dirty Dancing

The good news: the immortal line, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” remains intact in this TV remake of the 1987 classic movie that starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. The bad news: this do-over features an unnecessary and depressing epilogue tacked onto the familiar story of a romance between a bad-boy choreographer and the good, if repressed, daughter of an esteemed, stern father. Once again set at a vacation resort in summer 1963, the tale finds 18-year-old Baby (Abigail Breslin), a frumpy brainiac and proto-feminist headed to Harvard in a few weeks, on a family vacation with her role model doctor dad (Bruce Greenwood), her emotionally neglected mother (Debra Messing), and her restless sister (Sarah Hyland). Baby gets a glimpse of the orgiastic downtime of the resort's performers, especially Johnny (Colt Prattes), a prickly dancer with a bad reputation, police record, and willingness to sleep with select female vacationers. A crisis brings Baby into Johnny's orbit, and soon he's teaching her to shake off constraints and learn to dance. Of course, romance ensues, much to the loud objections of Baby's dad. In general, this new Dirty Dancing works, amping up the sexual heat of the original while adding a few bold tweaks to the story, such as an interracial fling (this is 1963) between Baby's sister and an African-American musician (J. Quinton Johnson). Fans will be happy to know that iconic moments from the classic movie are reprised here, including the dance steps on a log over a stream and Johnny's air-guitar moves during “Love is Strange.” The only unfortunate note is that aforementioned downer epilogue. Recommended. (T. Keogh)