This comedy never quite relaxes or convinces or comes together, despite a blue-chip pedigree and a great cast, including producer-star Nick Frost with Olivia Colman, Rory Kinnear, Chris O'Dowd, Ian McShane and Rashida Jones. All these big names are upstaged by Kayvan Novak, who steals the film with his very funny performance as an outrageously camp dancer called Bejan.
Frost plays Bruce Garrett, a shy, overweight office worker who abandoned his boyhood brilliance in the world of salsa dancing in shame after he was beaten up by bullies. But then, in early middle age, he falls for his gorgeous boss Julia (Jones) who happens to be a huge salsa fan, and Bruce sees a shot at redemption. The truth is that Nick Frost clearly can't dance salsa at all well, and no amount of sneaky framing and editing can conceal the fact that he looks like the celeb on Strictly Come Dancing who goes out in the first round.
That's not to say there aren't some funny moments: I laughed at his aggressive "salsa-off" in a high-rise car park with Chris O'Dowd and his claim that "identifying dogs by their silhouettes" is one of his talents. But it doesn't quite work.
