REVIEW
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 Make It Happen
2008
Certificate: PG | Runtime: 90 | Director: Darren Grant
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Riley Smith, Tessa Thompson
 
Lauryn (Winstead) is a young woman from rural Indiana with a dream; to be a dancer. She currently works at her family garage, but heads to Chicago when she gets offered an audition at the prestigious School of Music and Dance. However, the audition doesn't go well, and she finds herself unable to go back home with the bad news. She meets Dana (Thompson), a fellow dancer, who helps her get an admin job at a stylish burlesque club she dances at. When one of the girls doesn't turn up, Lauryn is given her chance on stage. She quickly becomes a crowd favourite. She starts a relationship with DJ Russ (Smith), though her brother Joel (John Reardon) is keen for her to come home when he finds out what she's doing.
Make It Happen is co-written by Duane Adler, a man with six writing credits to his name. And every single one of those credits is for a film about dancing. Now, that in itself is fine. Many writers are good at writing about certain things, and stick firmly to that subject as often as possible. However, doing so can breed repetition, which is why Make It Happen is perhaps the most generic film of its type I have ever seen. Just out of curiosity, and because I have too much time on my hands, I made a list before I watched the film of 20 occurrences, ideas or plot developments I thought likely to be contained within it. I got 17 of them right.
I almost wish I was joking about my list, but I'm not. The film feels astoundingly stale, predictable and familiar. Every challenge Lauryn faces has a foreseeable outcome, every character feels prepacked, and every little twist and turn can be seen coming. There is nothing inherently wrong with films following a formula; but following them to the letter is just too much. In fact, it is only because of Winstead that the film doesn't grind to an unbearable halt. She has a natural honesty and likeability about her that makes Lauryn very easy to support and admire. The film doesn't need to spend time building Lauryn up as a friendly and decent character because Winstead establishes those characteristics herself. And, while Winstead's face is covered in a suspicious number of the dance routines (suggesting a heavy use of doubles), it is certainly possible to buy into the notion that she is a skilled dancer. She has the right physique for it, unlike a lot of the dumpy or scrawny actresses they often try to pass off as great dancers in this sort of film.
Unfortunately, the positives pretty much end there. Smith makes for a bizarrely unsavoury love interest. We see Lauryn go through all the right motions with Russ, and the character is written in exactly the same way as generic boyfriends always are. But Smith has this smarmy look to him that seems threatening and almost sinister. Thompson disappears after a couple of decent scenes in the early stages of the film, while Julissa Bermudez plays the resident bitch at the club. Every club has to have one.
The dance number also range in quality. It was refreshing to find them shot without excess movement of the camera, and without sending the editor to the Paul Greengrass School for Shaky-Cam Studies. But the actual choreography in some feels lacking in energy, and the music to accompany the dances is occasionally a little cheesy. That said, if a predictable story and lots of dancing is all you look for in a film, you'll have an utterly fantastic time© David Mercier
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