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Finally, there is the dancing. Ross has very effectively staged it for the camera coming closer to the spirit of live performance than any other film director ever has. He is, of course, lucky to have Mikhail Baryshnikov's spectacular leaps and ardent partnering to shoot. In fairness it should be said that Baryshnikov is also lucky, far more so in his movie debut than poor Rudolf Nureyev was in Valentino. Aside from dancing, he is required only to be sexy—in other words, himself—as he conducts an initiatory affair with Leslie Browne, and that he manages with aplomb. In short, he is likable, triumphing over his deficiencies of language, just as the movie triumphs over its shaky premise. It is hard to imagine anyone, with the possible exception of preadolescent males, who will not, in the end turn on to Turning Point.
—R.S.