Not a great movie, but it won't waste your time. It is far from the worst musical by a non-musical director. No one who heard Marlon Brando sing for Joseph Manckiewicz in "Guys and Dolls" can doubt that. They even had the right idea with the Cassie subplot, although it doesn't work too well the way it's done. How would anyone really film this thing? On stage "A Chorus Line" gets all its power from the stripped-down electric proximity of the speakers. But if you don't open it up for the film then you have got a talking picture of a line of people for 2 hours. The only places they really screw up are cutting away from "I Can Do That" to show Cassie doing nothing (nice irony, unfortunately it trashes the dance number) and in the scene where the "winners" are selected, which is not credible. The choreography is noisy, but it was the '80s and cargo pants and MTV were in the air along with coca dust. Maybe it was necessary to cover up some of the dancers' limitations? Every time Alyson Reed tried and failed to lay back and put her hand on the floor or hang her heel on her nose, I thought of Eleanor Powell. (To see someone actually do those moves, and do them in one take, check out "Broadway Melody of 1940".)
Review of A Chorus Line
