mcarman-83803 Danzón is a fantastic movie which through its exploration of love, lust, and the female experience brings the viewer to laugh and cry and think deeply about the realities of everyday life.I absolutely adored this movie. I am not usually one for romantic movies. I often find them to be too similar plot-wise to hold my interest for very long, and as a gay man I really do get tired of the lack of representation in movies, or even worse, representation that only furthers homonegative stereotypes. Danzón, however was original in its plot and explored themes of gender and sexuality which are often ignored or barely touched upon in movies. I think the most enjoyable part of the film for me was the degree to which I was able to immerse myself in Julia's experience. From her uncomfortable impromptu "date" in the restaurant, to her fling with a man she didn't really feel much for, to her touching reunion with her dancing partner, I found myself cheering Julia on, hoping she succeeded and lived a happy life. The part of the film I most appreciated, however, was the character Susy. While this depiction of a gay drag queen was not the most perfect thing I've ever seen, it was still fantastically done. Rather than feeling like a comic relief and an accessory to Julia, Susy struck me as a three-dimensional person, full of life and complex emotion. One of the important themes which I found fascinating was the exploration of life as a woman. Oftentimes in this still mostly male-centric world movies focus on male experience and the only aspects of female experience are those which benefit and highlight male experience. In Danzón I felt like I was actually getting a glimpse into what it's like to be a woman. I saw the sexual harassment, the disregard for female feelings and experiences, the use of women for male sexual pleasure. However, none of it felt like it was a plot device meant to further Julia's quest for her love. It felt like the director and writer were actually trying to make the viewer understand intimately the female experience. Overall I give this movie ten stars. I found it just absolutely wonderful, and deserving of the highest praise I can award.

miokey2004 This film can hardly be classified as such. It lacks and visual style to distinguish it from other poorly made melodramas. It's characters are almost all stock, save for Julia, who is the only person the audience is supposed to connect with. However, due to a poor performance by the main actress and a horrifically abstract plot, we are unable to connect in any real way with this woman.Julia runs off to a city she does not know to find her dance partner, and she does not find him, but she does find a new sort of "family" consisting of a drag queen, a hooker, a no-nonsense hotel manager and a man young enough to be her son who she gets to "know" very well. This would be almost satisfying if the film did not first establish her OTHER family by giving the relationship Julia has with her daughter and her friends at home so much screen time. Maybe the "finding herself and her family" story line would have been effective if the viewer did not already feel that she had these things already. This choice makes the whole film obsolete, and instead of making Julia sympathetic, it makes her seem selfish and also very stupid.But then there is the ending. She returns home to her first family (after abandoning her found family, just like her dance partner had abandoned her--so had she really grown?)and returns to the dance hall, alone and ready to dance without a partner. This is the one act that showed some bravery (the actually brave kind, not the dumb "I'm running off to a strange city alone to spend all my savings looking for one man" kind). FOr a moment, the viewer is left satisfied thinking that the film is allowing its heroine to grow--but then who should appear but Carmelo, her dance partner. The frame is filled by their passion-less dance for what seems like hours, and the end credits begin to roll. This is a wholly unsatisfying ending for two reasons: 1)The film establishes Carmelo to be kind of a God figure, illusive and unobtainable, the perfect being that Julia is going to such ends to be with, and to show us him is just painful. 2)It negates the rest of the plot. Why did we waste so much time on this journey if she didn't really need to take it? Would Carmelo not have come back if she had not befriended a drag queen? The problems with this movie go beyond plot elements. It is very poorly shot. First time director Navaro (who also edited the film) lets the camera linger for far too long on mostly static objects. This halts the pacing of the film, and it occurs many, many times throughout. There is also an amazing amount of fluid camera movements, pans and tilts from one character to another, to a sign, to a building and then back to another camera. It is nauseating to see.The only thing that keeps me from giving this film a 1 is that it does show single women of a certain age living in Mexico, and it shows them in a positive light. It does not victimize them as single women so often are in Mexican cinema, but deals with them as people who work, who live and who are independent. But this is just not enough to support a film. As a feminist statement, it makes its point, as an entertaining or engaging film, it fails completely.

nancykf Maria Novaro has made a mini-specialty of what might be called the "women's road movie." (She has described her later "Without a Trace" as "Thelma and Louise" with a happy ending.) Danzon gives us Julia, a 40-ish telephone operator and single mother of a sulky teenager, who leaves her Mexico City routine when her dance partner--about whom she knows little more than his name--seems to disappear. The movie opens up into lush panoramas when Julia reaches Veracruz, a metaphor for her own blossoming self-discovery. The soundtrack alone--old-fashioned "danzons" (Mexican dance music imported from Cuba)--is worth the rental price.

tito-13 Julia is a middle aged phone operator in Mexico City who divides her time between her job, her daughter and the "Danzon": an elegant, romantic Cuban dance popular in Caribbean Latin America.Julia wants to taste one great romance in her life before she feels she will have lost what's left of her beauty. Like a ritual, each Wednesday Julia dances the Danzon with the dashing, mysterious and still handsome Carmelo in the old "Salon Colonia". They've danced for years but barely know each other.One night Carmelo disappears without a trace. Suddenly bereft, Julia abandons well-regulated obligations and responsibilities and sets off on a long distance odyssey, searching for her missing cavalier. These comic, touching and ultimately triumphant adventures lead Julia to a deeper comprehension of the meaning of life and true happiness.