The host of a gay radio talk show struggles to
be as self-confident in life as he is on air.
Boldness on the airwaves is no alternate
for actual living in The David Dance, April Winney's adaptation of Don
Scime's stage play about a shy talk-show host (Scime) being forced to practice
what he preaches. The story's core dilemma, in which a gay man should push
himself outside his soothe zone in his conservative hometown, will be valued by
many viewers as this heartfelt picture begins touring North America in one-off
bookings, as will a concern with America's attitude toward
"nontraditional" family structures. But sluggish storytelling and
other dramatic failings will keep it from connecting with a broader audience.
Reprising the role he played on stage,
Scime is the popular host of "Gay Talk"; but his on-air name,
"Danger Dave," could hardly be less expressive of the shy, maybe
self-loathing man he is outside the studio. We meet David just as he's wrapping
up his final show, having been fired for reasons we won't understand any time
soon; thus begins a rather tortured structural scheme in which we bounce back
and forth through time for unknown reasons.
Soon we've hopped back to before the
death of David's sister and best friend Kate, watching a long conversation of
her decision to adopt a child by herself. She requests David to agree to be a
father figure, but he balks at first — one of many (sometimes annoying) ways in
which this 36 year-old man is unwilling to act like a grown-up.
Another is his puzzling reluctance to
act when a new scientific assistant at his radio station clearly has a crush on
him. Chris (Guy Adkins) is attractive, smart and patient — and he'll need
to be, because even once they've started hanging out, the film waits an
artificially long time to give the couple their first kiss.
That's one of the movie's more
forgivable contrivances. More problematic is the climactic scene in which David
learns his sister has died in the midst of an on-air debate with a conservative
Christian figure over family values: Here, dramatic implausibilities pile up
dangerously.
Though frustrating, the timidity of
Scime's character will be familiar enough to many viewers to make us sympathize
with him. But in trying to dramatize his inner conflict with one too many
subplots and a clumsily fractured chronology, The David Dance makes too many wrong moves.
Production company: Brave Lad
Films
Cast: Don Scime, Guy Adkins,
Antoinette LaVecchia, Jordan Baker, Tonye Patano, Juju Stulbach, Lauren Lopes
Director: April Winney
Screenwriter-Producer: Don Scime
Director of photography: Ian
McGlocklin
Production designer: Brian Rzepka
Costume designer: Stephani Lewis
Editor: Erin Druez
Composer: Marc Jackson
Casting director: Brette
Goldstein
Venue: Cinepolis Chelsea
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