Review: ‘The Bronx Balletomane’

* Director: Jeremy Joffee

* Length: 31 minutes, 2 seconds

“The Bronx Balletomane” tells the story of a man’s secret dream of becoming a ballet dancer. Federico Castelluccio (whom you’ll recognize as Furio from “The Sopranos”) plays Joey, a widowed, out-of-shape security guard, and father to a little girl. He sits on the stoop with his pals portraying the stereotypical tough guy. However, when he’s alone, all he can think of is ballet. When his daughter has a rough day at dance class, he agrees to take a ballet class of his own to make her feel better. From there, he begins to realize his dream.

Through the first half of the film I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to laugh at what was going on, or be sympathetic. Everything came off as a bit too over the top, which made the events comical, but not in the way I’m sure the director had in mind. Midway through, though, I could tell that the film was intentionally trying to be funny, but it still didn’t work for me. While there were a few humorous moments, overall the film suffered from being too melodramatic.

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