The Turning Point
Director: Herbert Ross
Year Released: 1977
Rating: 1.0
Two ballet divas clash after years apart: Shirley MacLaine harbors ill-will towards famed competitor Anne Bancroft, who she accuses of 'eliminating' her back when they were young for her own personal glory. The dramatic aspects are leaden and it's admittedly hard to garner sympathy for a bunch of ostentatious tarts and their meager problems involving vanity and revenge; the actual dancing numbers are nice but don't have the visual flair of a better film like The Red Shoes (which this owes a considerable amount of gratitude towards). Leslie Browne can dance like there's no tomorrow but sucks as an actress (lots of blank expressions and cooing - she's like Vivien Leigh after the Lithium finally kicked in) - alternatively, Mikhail Baryshnikov is a decent actor, but his physical abilities are on loan from God.
