Brightlyme i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

GazerRise Fantastic!

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

laceykat The problem with most of the reviews on this is that they are trying to like a movie that does not exist. It is the old problem or reviewing the movie you wanted to see, not the one on the screen.This is a beautifully shot movie with consummate actors all doing their job. The dialogue is good, the filming and direction is good, and everyone brings their A game no matter how small their part. In fact, brevity is the order of the day. Whole backstories and motivations are given in one line or throwaway comment. This is the consummate theater we all want. With all of this, the only thing the story is missing IS a story.The other reviews will give you more of the plot, but basically, Miranda Richardson plays Ruth Ellis, the last women to be hung in England. It is post World War 2 and she is a woman who has made a lot of mistakes in her life. Rupert Everett plays the epitome of British Aristocracy in the 20th Century. He has the title and deference, but no money. Ian Holms loves Miranda also, but we never really know why. "Ruth" is drop dead gorgeous, and now a "B" girl at a local pub. Her dysfunctional relationship with "David" pushes he over the edge and she kills him (no spoiler and irrelevant to this film). This is not a look at the social pressures and changes of post-war Britan. It is not a look at the changing role of women in the 1950s or of the problems they faced. If you would like to see a good series addressing that then I would suggest "Call the Mid-Wife." "Ruth" is no feminist icon that has been done wrong by some misogynistic society bent on holding her down. The killing is NOT the last act of a desperate, abused, woman. In the end, you are left with a "Ya, so" attitude of the events. Which is a shame because until then you had the makings of a really good movie. My only guess is that they ran out of money and had to rush the conclusion of the story, or never had any real reason for telling it and did not realize that until they had too much invested. Even a trial scene might have given "Ruth" some empathetic moments but in this film you only think that this is a woman who made a lot of mistakes and squandered every opportunity she was ever given. You don't feel anything for her because she was never any type of sympathetic character. In fact, other than being stunning, she is no character at all.I like actor-driven movies and this is a good example of one. Everyone came to the set ready and willing to do a good job. The faults of the film are not theirs. There just was never a real story to tell.

johnnyboyz Dance With a Stranger is the thoroughly accomplished, agonisingly methodical Mike Newell film depicting the sordid but complicated relationship two people have with one another, further-still within a world of sleaze and immorality. It is a stark but mature observation of a handful of characters eventually consumed by their own misguided and somewhat disgraceful lifestyle, made all the more distressing by precisely what it is most of them already have that they go on to just casually toss away because of these complications. Newell's film is an apt and trimmed study of a destructive but very distinct way of life doubling up as a realm in which one may revel in one's sins; specifically, how remorseless items such as obsession and unrequited love can spawn as a result of that before going on to categorically destroy one's life.The film covers the lives of two true-to-life people living in 1950s Britain, the two whom come to forge the film's core nucleus in its character study being Miranda Richardson's Ruth Ellis and Rupert Everett's David Blakeley; a mother of one, nightclub owner and a rich, upper class race driver. It begins with a rather clear process of distinguishing one's potentially sordid lifestyle with that of those whom look on from the outside. Ian Holm's Desmond Cussen, once a bomber pilot during The War, drives to Ellis' nightclub at a time when the sun has long since set and street lamps provide the only rays of light enabling one to see; an elderly man, the tomfoolery and distinct sense of happiness he observes in other cars as he nears his destination has him scorn. Additionally, his arrival at the club permitting the film to construct his composition through a spyhole from inside as he looks even crosser at those he stands beside in a queue acting all raucous. The man is there to see Ellis, but on a far more professional level than any one else; he is there to attend the nightly functions she hosts much to many male admirer's delight, but Cussen appears an acquaintance in comparison - merely a man with a more genuine relationship with the woman away from one night live-it-large stands in which sharing her company must be the predominant feature. In capturing Cussen's reaction in such a way that is through a spyhole, we sense a reaction to what it is he sees around him and must come to associate himself with, ie; one of a contemptuous nature or of immense distaste, one that he perhaps hides.Enter Ellis, a frizzy haired; popular and highly extroverted hostess whose bright red lipstick, large blonde locks, pendulating earrings and loud, exuberant voice means she is nary too far away from the centre of everybody's attention, nor indeed the audience's - both of whom have a hard time in shifting focus away from the array of her distinguishable features. Her house of fun is a plethora of deviltry and lawlessness, a nightclub-come-public-house-come-brothel in which cacophonous behaviour and fun times within this realm is wholeheartedly encouraged and indulged in with great frequency. Things are made complicated with the arrival of young racer Blakeley, a handsome and seemingly decent enough man whom is already engaged to another woman and revels in his own joyous lifestyle of travel; fast cars and socialism, to his great satisfaction. His interaction with this proverbial behemoth of a woman in Ellis comes to tragically dictate how it is either of these person's lives will depressingly twist and bend in the all-too near future, an initial interaction and a passionate coming together eventually spelling disaster for all involved.The film is a shrill demonisation of such things, Ellis' initial bond with Blakeley barely much more to her than another young punter in her ever-growing kingdom of smut whom she happens to bed; for Blakeley, the night turns into a very gradual and very dangerous obsession which puts everybody at risk and comes to see Ellis return such sentiments under a different guise. At the core appears something somewhat resembling a class war which is effortlessly embedded within all this sordid romance, evident in Blakeley's taking of Ellis to his large manor house and surroundings grounds plus village out in the middle of the countryside to which Ellis appears flustered and demands to be taken back to her London abode. On another occasion, a sensitive and rather private exchange between Ellis and her ten year old son Andy in their dingy little house, as she sits at her dressing table, has her reflect to him precisely where it is she stands on a certain Swiss private school to which girls go to be "good". This symptomatic rejection of what might be perceived as a 'proper', more informed upbringing is addressed while Ellis quite literally dresses herself or gets ready for another night of whatnot thus instilling a specific sense of persona construction as she verbally rejects another strand a young woman can seemingly venture down.This ill-at-odds attitude, with the antithesis to what it is Ellis physically represents, is a pained but fascinating undercurrent hinting toward a result which was never going to be anything else than total failure; all to what is a routine surface relationship between her and Blakeley. The film remains morbidly fascinating throughout, Newell shooting Ellis and Blakeley's coming together at the early stages as unspectacular and deliberately colourless – it is transparent and a little blank; later on, their sex scenes carry more precise airs of passion and fondness as hues of red and darkened out cinematography encapsulated where it is they now are with one another and how far they've progressed in this regard. On a number of levels, all of which engaging without ever feeling particularly exploitative, Dance With a Stranger works rather well.

blanche-2 Miranda Richardson is her usual brilliant self in "Dance with a Stranger," a 1985 film telling the true story of Ruth Ellis and David Blakeley. Blakeley was a rich young race car driver who becomes involved in a obsessive, passionate, and often violent relationship with night club hostess Ellis. It leads to tragedy.The scandal took place in the '50s, and the atmosphere of the time is captured beautifully here, and the film is well directed by Mike Newell. The acting is beyond flawless, with perfect performances by Ian Holm as the passive man who supported Ruth, Desmond Cussen, Rupert Everett as the self-centered Blakeley, and Richardson, one of the truly great actresses of our time, as Ruth. I'm not certain why Richardson's name isn't uttered along with that of Helen Mirren's or Meryl Streep's. She's a true chameleon. No one can ever equal her supporting performance in "Damage" - I don't really care that someone else won the Oscar! Here she gives a fully fleshed-out portrait of the unapologetic, tough, sexy Ellis.The script has some disappointments - one of which is, we don't get to the real story until the last minutes of the film - it's not really told, in fact - so obviously, that wasn't considered the real story by screenwriter Shelagh Delaney. The problem is that Ellis' situation was very controversial, and if you know it, you sit through the movie waiting for that part to begin. If you don't, well, then I guess you won't miss it.The purpose of "Dance with a Stranger" is to show what led up to the tragedy, which includes the class-consciousness of British society. In doing so, it leaves out the possible involvement of the Ian Holm character, Cussen, in what actually happened. Still, thanks to the strong acting, the story is fascinating, and these real characters come to life.

shamefacedmylad This is a haunting, finely-crafted film that transports the viewer to another time and place from the very first frames of the movie. The sets, lighting, fashions, and make-up all unify to create a special cinema experience. It is restrained, refined, mature, and civilized. In its dark way, this film captures a type of story-telling magic that only movies can create. It is an eternal, personal favorite, and one of the best films of the decade. Miranda Richardson is irreplaceable; she inhabits the role, completely. The supporting cast is equally effective. Unfortunately, the latest DVD cover lacks the powerful, simple black-and-white design of vintage promotional material. The original imagery was as classic and elegant as the film, itself. It is a fine piece of movie-making. I wish more directors aspired to this type of work.