Starring Sally Potter and Pablo Veron Directed by Sally Potter Rated PG with mild profanity Running time 101 minutes Jack gives this film a rating of 7 out of 10

(Jan. 30, 1998) -- Everything about The Tango Lesson says: Pretentious vanity project.

In it, esoteric British filmmaker Sally Potter plays herself in an obviously autobiographical movie about a middle-aged director who becomes a heck of a tango dancer. She all but cries out: Look at me, ain't I something?

And you can't get more pretentious than by shooting your home movie in glossy black and white.

But after Potter's second or third twirl on the dance floor with tango master Pablo Veron, I felt more and more forgiving.

Before our eyes, she does become an accomplished tango dancer. If I could join up with an acknowledged master and dance like that, I'd also want to show off.

And if I could hire the artful Robby Muller as my director of photography, I'd also let him shoot in black and white. Many of the resulting images are downright breathtaking.

So I ultimately have no problem with the center of the movie -- Sally Potter's surprising evolution with the tango. I only wish she would have worked as hard with the script.

Much of the dialogue is overly precious and sometimes inexplicable. I was especially confused by her out-of-left-field assertion: "I'm an atheist, but I feel I'm a Jew." The movie's sudden turn to religion continues with a wordless visit by Potter and Veron to a synagogue.

And then, with no further explanation, they're back on the dance floor, none the worse or better for the momentary diversion. (It'd be like Gene Kelly stopping in the middle of Singing in the Rain to go to Mass.)

Potter isn't content to showcase something as simple (and lovely) as a growing ability to dance. She also has to delve into The Deeper Meaning, setting up all sorts of ways to explore the power struggle between the director and the dancer.

On top of that, there's Rage, a movie script Potter is shown developing between the tango lessons. We see glimpses of the movie that's in her head -- in color, no less. The unmade movie involves a legless man in a wheelchair, bent on assassinating three glamorous fashion models. Moviegoers can be grateful she decided she'd rather dance than make that movie.

But all the silliness and pretense of The Tango Lesson is easily forgotten when Veron and Potter dance. And, fortunately, they dance a lot.

The scenes are superbly choreographed by Veron; the music includes top-flight compositions by such leading lights as Astor Piazzolla; and cinematographer Muller becomes an equal partner in the sensuous exploration of the dances.

As Argentinians long ago discovered, sometimes the tango is all you need.