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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Soccer, Samba & Irish Eyes Smiling, August 19, 2000
In this movie, you'll see the emergence of a movie star. Make note of where you heard it first.Her name is Keri Russell and she's the 24 year old title character of the TV melodrama, "Felicity". Up from the Mickey Mouse Club, through the soaps, she is the shining virtue of that pretty decent young college angst series, another feather in the cap of the ubiquitous writer-producer David Kelly. If Kelly has nothing else (and he has much else--including being married to Michelle Pfeiffer) it's recognizing outstanding talent and exploiting all its possibilities, which he's still in the process of doing on TV and here, in a low-budget Irish love story which he produced. Having said all that, here comes the bad news. The story has little to offer in terms of freshness. It's poor boy meets rich girl set in an Irish town where soccer is king. He, Danny Mitchell, (William Ash), though his build and exploits on the field somewhat belie it, is the nominal leader of his team, striving to get with the bigger, more important, all union team. When his idol, a Brazilian ace soccer player is recruited to the union team and is credited with that phenomenal "rhythm" that is part of Brazilian genetics, Danny, our hero, sets off to learn samba in the local dance studio. That's when he first sets eyes on the lustrous Lucy McLoughlin (Keri Russell), practicing for the big dance competition. A natural pairing? Ah, but there's a catch. She has a boyfriend, a supposedly great dancer and a basically unfriendly fellow soccer player. Well, enough of the storyline. You probably see where and how it's heading since you've seen this story many times before. Soccer and samba are the only unique elements and they aren't enough to rise above the formulaic, low-budget nature of it all. There's lots of dance footage and, while a person who is a fan of Russell's might want to see what she can do "on the boards", the over-editing is another distraction. What I saw is that in her stretches and movements she has an exceedingly graceful and poetic line. But her routines are not sustained long enough to judge her overall expertise. This might have been done to mask her (or his) limitations, but I think I saw enough to be impressed with her movements and footwork. It is, perhaps not on a professional level, but her exquisiteness carries the day. Also impressive is her Irish brogue which had moments of such accurate accenting and diction as to belie her birth in Fountain Valley, California. Born Keri Lynn Russell, one might think she had the accent in her ear from childhood. But, let's see if she can command a different country's idiom in another film that calls for it -- before we make too much of it. It seems as though there's one English/Irish film brought to domestic shores and theatres every year by one distributor or another. And, perhaps because of canny choices, it becomes a sizable hit, starting with the extraordinary success of "The Full Monty" (1997), followed by a weaker "Waking Ned Devine" (1998). Well, "Mad About Mambo" looks like this year's British import -- though not necessarily this year's hit. Whatever... as a vehicle for Russell's incipient film career, it's got my vote. Worthy of mention is Brian Cox, playing Sidney McLoughlin, rich father of Lucy and local merchant, in a funny, if one dimensional role. This movie veteran is anything but one dimensional however -- a recent role being Herman Goering in the mini series, "Nuremberg". He's got a list of credits to match the best of them.
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![Mad About Mambo [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k8E0OnxuL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
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