Love, hate and the tango

I have friends who have devoted time, energy and money to mastering the tango, which -- as much as anything -- tells me that there's something alluring and obsessive about a dance that can be viewed both as an erotic expression of romance and a battle of the sexes. If tango fascinates you, you probably won't want to miss Our Last Tango, a quasi-documentary about Juan Carlos Copes and Maria Nieves Rego, a famous Argentine tango-dancing couple who have been both lovers and antagonists. I call Our Last Tango, a quasi-documentary because it includes reconstructed scenes of Copes and Rego as young dancers. Although richly realized, these re-stagings of dance numbers from various points in the Copes/Rego relationship struck me as frosting on an already satisfying cake. The main attraction here is Rego, who isn't the least bit shy about discussing her feelings about Copes, whom she met when she was still a kid. He's not reticent in discussing his feelings about her, either. Now in their 80s, these former partners aren't the best of friends, although they spent roughly half a century dancing together. Our Last Tango was written and directed by German Kral, who imbues the movie with feature-quality cinematography from Jo Heim and Felix Monti. I'd say the movie is a bit over-produced, but Rego is a character you won't soon forget. Age doesn't seem to have dimmed either her piercing candor or her irrepressible ardor.