White Nights (1985)

A Russian ballet dancer (Mikhail Baryshnikov) who has defected from the Soviet Union is traveling by plane from Europe to Japan for a performance. But when the plane has electrical problems, it is forced to crash land in Siberia where the defector is held by the KGB as a criminal. Directed by Taylor Hackford (AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN), the film has an interesting premise that is sabotaged by a highly contrived and uninspired screenplay. The film seems designed to sell the soundtrack album. Baryshnikov has a cassette player that is used to play shitty pop songs and the film's end title song, the hideous SAY YOU SAY ME sung by Lionel Ritchie actually won an Oscar for best song. The mind reels! Both Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines (as an American defector to the Soviet Union) give solid performances though Hines' character is ill conceived. The dance sequences (choreographed by Twyla Tharp) aren't especially notable but Hackford is smart enough to know that when you have dancers the caliber of Baryshnikov and Hines, you just put the camera on them and don't mess it up. A Baz Luhrmann or Rob Marshall would have let the editing and cutting do the dancing for them. Worth a look for the dancing and not much else. With Helen Mirren (who would end up marrying the director), Isabella Rossellini, Geraldine Page, Jerzy Skolimowski, John Glover, Shane Rimmer and Maryam D'abo.