Magic Mike’s Last Dance
There will be no complaints from the fans of Channing Tatum hoping for more of the same - with additional complications.
And so to bed: Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault
For one of the most experimental filmmakers working in America today, Steven Soderbergh seems surprisingly comfortable churning out sequels. Here, he returns to the Magic Mike platform, once again donning the director’s hat, as he did on the first film. And let’s not forget that he directed Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen. For Magic Mike XXL (2015), he served only as executive producer and, using pseudonyms, also edited and photographed it (and was even the camera operator).
Magic Mike’s Last Dance remains a formulaic beast, although Soderbergh brings a spontaneity to the proceedings that frees up the franchise. Without the six packs and the magical moves, the series wouldn’t be the same, so nobody is going to be disappointed this time around. The film’s co-producer Channing Tatum still looks like a Greek god and can undulate like a panther on heat. For sure, he could make a straight guy question his heterosexuality.
Mike Lane, having really, really retired from dancing for good (until he features in Magic Mike’s Very Last Dance) is working as a freelance bartender when he’s made an offer he can’t refuse. A rich older woman, Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek Pinault, formerly Salma Hayek), agrees to pay Mike’s asking price of $6,000 for a single dance – and he makes sure she gets her money’s worth. She is smitten: she admits “that one fucking dance changed everything in me.” Consequently, she offers Mike $60,000 to accompany her to London for a four-week trip with a mysterious agenda. All expenses paid. Intrigued, Mike goes along with the plan, and Maxandra’s ongoing mystery nicely oils the wheels of the film’s first act.
There’s the obligatory London montage and tourist hotspots, a luxurious residence in the centre of the capital and a butler whose manner is as dehydrated as dry-ice (courtesy of the wonderful Ayub Khan Din). It turns out that Maxandra owns the legendary Rattigan Theatre in the heart of the West End. However, unlike the noted Shaw, Harold Pinter and Sondheim playhouses, this one is not named after a celebrated figure of the stage (like, say, the distinguished playwright Sir Terence Rattigan), but after the moneyed family Maxandra married into. What follows is an intriguing, if occasionally quaint, dip into the potential of what live performance can offer, even when pitted against London’s crusty establishment. Forget that such iconoclastic productions as Oh! Calcutta!, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show originated in London (while Tatum’s very own Magic Mike Live is currently flashing its way across the Hippodrome stage). Be that as it may, Magic Mike’s Last Dance seems more concerned with the domestic dynamic of Maxandra’s life. Besides the omnipresent Victor, her butler, there’s also her estranged husband, Roger Rattigan (Alan Cox), and her teenage daughter Zadie (Jemelia George) who is writing a novel. “What’s it about?” asks Mike. “It’s about forty pages,” she replies. It’s often the offhand moments that work best in the film’s favour, giving the template an almost impromptu ambience, which is what Soderbergh is so good at. There’s also the engaging mystery of Maxandra’s Grand Plan (no spoilers here), a refreshing array of new faces and, of course, there will be dance. And six packs.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Channing Tatum, Salma Hayek Pinault, Ayub Khan Din, Jemelia George, Juliette Motamed, Ethan Lawrence, Alan Cox, Kylie Shea, Vicki Pepperdine, Christopher Villiers, Gavin Spokes, Caitlin Gerard, Christopher Bencomo, Suzanne Bertish, Marcus Brigstocke.
Dir Steven Soderbergh, Pro Channing Tatum, Nick Wechsler, Gregory Jacobs, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan, Screenplay Reid Carolin, Ph Peter Andrews (aka Steven Soderbergh), Pro Des Pat Campbell, Ed Mary Ann Bernard (aka Steven Soderbergh), Music Season Kent, Costumes Christopher Peterson, Sound Larry Blake.
Nick Wechsler Productions/Free Association-Warner Bros.
111 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 10 February 2023. Cert. 15.
