Article by freelancer Victoria Stavish
In a last ditch effort to elevate the trilogy, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” attempts to dive deep into female desire and the anthropology of dance, dismissing the reasons why we love Magic Mike in the first place.
Leading theaters with an $8.2 million opening on Super Bowl weekend, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” follows Mike Lane, played by Channing Tatum, who gave up stripping to run a furniture business that has since gone under.
Mike is lost in life and working a bartending job when Maxandra Mendoza, played by Salma Hayek, tells Mike she needs him to perform just one last dance to get over a recent separation from her disgustingly rich husband.
From this first dance, we understand that this is not just another fun stripping movie. Mike is wrestling with what male entertaining means not only to him but to the world.
But Director Steven Soderbergh should know that Magic Mike viewers aren’t here to think about the complexity and nuances of dance and desire. We’re here to have a thoughtless good time. The surface level attempt at something deeper falls and stays flat throughout the entire 112 minutes.
Following an intense night together, Max asks Mike to come to London for a job, which she eventually reveals to be a director of a burlesque club she won from her husband amid a divorce battle.
While the original “Magic Mike” movie focused on the plight of male entertainers, and “Magic Mike XXL” shone a light on the service male entertainers provide to women of all types and confidence levels, the trilogy finale places Maxandra, or in other words, the customer, in charge.
However, Hayek’s underdeveloped character never achieves the status of feminist warrior that Soderbergh so desperately wants her to be and is instead the center of an unconvincing romance.
To twist the knife, as if the underdeveloped plot and characters aren’t enough, Max’s angsty adopted daughter Zadie Rattigan, played by Jemelia George, randomly narrates and philosophizes about some of the biggest moments and themes, which feels as cheap as it does odd.
Another downfall of this movie was the anonymity of the dancers Mike and Max recruit for burlesque house. One of the biggest pulls of the previous two movies is the camaraderie and character the motley crew of male entertainers exude. The Last Dance doesn’t attempt to convert any of the new dancers into true characters, prioritizing a weak romance instead.
Despite the strangely avoidable acts of self-sabotage, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” is tinged with the Magic Mike we know and love, but never quite gets it right. While Mike’s bookend dances in the movie are undeniably hot and are still capable of making the viewer’s eyes pop out of their head while snorting with laughter, this movie finishes the trilogy on a downward slope by trying to dramatize the series’ impact and depth. “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” is best when you ignore Soderbergh’s pleas to think deeply about the series and instead, just enjoy it.