Dance with a Stranger (1985)
Directed by Mike Newell
Ruth Ellis lives with her ten-year old son Andy next to a night club. One night she meets David Blakely, and they start a love affair. However, for David with his upper-class background, it is impossible to uphold the relationship. He breaks up with her, something which makes Ellis, obsessed by him, very upset.
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What critics compared Dance with a Stranger to
Newell has dealt with love before: love gone bad in "Dance With a Stranger," love reawakened in "Enchanted April," love gone adorable and stammering in "Four Weddings and a Funeral."
But he has done darker films before (Dance With a Stranger, The Good Father) and brings to the piece a certain kitchen-sink realism, moving the genre out of the executive office and onto the factory floor.
But he's also the director of the noirish Dance with a Stranger and the bleakly lyrical Into the West, and he brings to Brasco a puckish melancholy, an acrid humor, and a blithe resignation.
Deftly written by Richard Curtis (who wanted some revenge after attending 65 weddings in 11 years) and directed by the versatile Mike Newell (responsible for everything from "Dance With a Stranger" to "Enchanted April"), "Four Weddings" is as good as its word, breezily following a small circle of friends through every one of the events the title promises.