The Still Point

Greenwood (Keeping Lucy) choreographs a gratuitous drama of three child dancers and their mothers as the girls compete for a prestigious ballet scholarship. Beatrice Henderson, Olive Chase, and Savvy Jacobs have trained together for several years at a ballet school in Southern California. On the cusp of their senior year of high school, famous French dancer Etienne Bernay promises one of these budding dancers a scholarship to Ballet de Paris Academie. The selection process, recorded for a documentary film, pits the girls against each other, alienating Beatrice from the other two despite her need for support after her father’s death in a surfing accident. Meanwhile, Etienne’s presence creates rifts between the mothers, too. During a night at a bar, one of them lets Etienne draw her close on the dance floor, to the distress of another, who later jeers, “When opportunity knocks, you answer, right? Invite it in for a drink and a quick screw?” In many scenes of similarly fraught interactions, Greenwood hammers excessively at the themes of cutthroat competition and desperation. This one doesn’t quite make the cut. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (Mar.)