Image: Warner Bros.
It often takes staying power to experience reversed conditions. In 1995, Salma Hayek was 28 when she danced almost naked with a snake while stretching hypnotizingly for a scene in the cult film From Dusk Till Dawn.
In the third film in the “Magic Mike” series, it is now the 56-year-old (“House of Gucci”) who gives herself a dance by the stripper Magic Mike, which her colleague Channing Tatum (42) embodies for the third time. It will be his last striptease directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”).
You can understand why Tatum can do without a fourth. In “The Last Dance” Hayek’s role is definitely the more exciting one. The Latina plays richly married Maxandra Mendoza, who is going through a divorce. In Miami, she discovers bartender Mike, a disoriented ex-dancer/stripper/carpenter. She offers him $6,000 for a lap dance, he reluctantly accepts the very last one. It turns out to be more – the offer ($60,000) to work for Maxanda in London for a month. There she makes him the director of a beautiful theater owned by her soon-to-be ex’s family.
Male “Pretty Woman”
Maxandra stands for speed, fantasy, rebellion, and vulnerability. Tatum has two questions: Will he strip again as a male “Pretty Woman”? And why can’t you offer the inherently talented actor, who shone in “Fox Catcher” (2014) as an abused athlete, better guidance – and no better script than that of the American Reid Carolin (“Magic Mike” 2012, “White House Down “, 2013)? As Mike, Tatum dances and choreographs lithe sexiness. Apart from that, he seems static and tight-lipped as a man who wants to conquer a bit of happiness with physical effort. Mike’s down-to-earth approach to conveying to the “cradle of Shakespeare” that one needn’t be afraid to break down encrusted fabrics by allowing and not immediately excluding feminism and eroticism, and even casting street dancers, is ultimately very funny.
It is clear that Soderbergh does not compose the production himself like a dance. He follows (also in the soundtrack) his rough, earthy handwriting, which does not seek smooth perfection, but space for explosive, powerful choreographies. But instead of starting a love story from Mike to a free life, one starts one with Maxandra, which hardly crackles. Tatum and Hayek seem more like best friends who just happen to play lovers. Mike deserved more, and so did Tatum.
“Magic Mike: The Last Dance”: United States 2023, 112 mins,
OÖN rating: three out of six stars
The trailer for the film:
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: Nachrichten
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
