Why do people dance? For the sheer please of learning a discipline and being able to move gracefully and be envied by other people. They dance for the joy of achieving something and doing it well. People dance competitively for the chance to shine outside of their mundane lives. Sugiyama wasn't a high-powered lawyer working in an expensive building. He was someone who had risen to a certain level in his company, but was boxed into common expectations who found a chance to express himself by following a whim.
This is the least convincing aspect of the American version — why John would take lessons without his wife, without his daughter? He's a popular, well-spoken lawyer. Where Sugiyama was stiff though elegant, he couldn't master the sensuous hip movements necessary for the Latin dances, John can get some hip action going. And he can lead tango.
The American version also adds characters of convenience. Did we really need for John Clark to have a son? Yes, for the ephiphany scene when a young girl his son's age asks him if he wants to dance. Where is the son later? Why is his new girlfriend introduced into the movie? What happens to them? No idea. Do we see anyone dance tango at the competition? No, we don't. When we later see Paulina practicing, is she practicing ballroom? No, she isn't.
A similar character, working a lower position in the same field found exuberant joy in becoming a producer. Played by Matthew Broderick in Mel Brook's 2005 musical film version of his 1967 movie by the same name, The Producers. Broderick's Leo Bloom just as Gene Wilder's Bloom, is an accountant, stiffled by the mundane routine of his job. Another similar American character would be James Thurber's Walter Mitty. The 1947 movie version with Danny Kaye, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, didn't please Thurber, but was also a song and dance feature like the 2005 The Producers.
The late Don Knotts was known for his milquetoast characters from Barney Fife to his Mr. Limpet who finds courage as a fish. There is something whimsical about the scene between Saradon and Gere, as they dance together in the kitchen. As a couple, they work, but perhaps it would be better in another story - one that made more emotional sense.
On the DVD, you can see the original beginning, something that worked a bit better and made the exchange John has with Paulina make more sense and yet still didn't explain why, why John took lessons without telling his wife.
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