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Save The Last Dance

2001, Movie, PG-13, 113 mins

Save The Last Dance: Review

SAVE THE LAST DANCE
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An utterly formulaic, teen-oriented romance whose greatest asset is charming leads Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas. Small-town teen Sara (Stiles) lives for dancing, until her mother is killed in a car accident. Sara blames herself — mom was rushing to watch Sara audition for a prestigious dance academy — and in her grief abandons ballet. Sara's also forced to move in with her estranged father (Terry Kinney), a jazz musician who lives in a rough Chicago neighborhood, and attend a sprawling urban high school where she's one of a handful of white students. Fortunately, Sara is taken under the wing of Chenille (Kerry Washington), who helps her make friends and retool her wardrobe so she doesn't look so "country." Sara and Chenille's handsome brother Derek (Thomas), a straight-A student who hopes to be a doctor, hook up through their mutual love of dancing. He teaches Sara hip-hop moves, and later encourages her to resume her ballet studies. But their relationship stirs up trouble. Derek's best friend, Malakai (Fredro Starr), pressures him to spend more time hanging with his home boys; ex-girlfriend Nikki (Bianca Lawson) does her sultry damnedest to break them up; and even Chenille confides her discomfort with a white girl scooping up one of the most promising, responsible black men in the neighborhood. Can Sara and Derek's love survive, and can they realize their dreams? Perhaps this trite romance will feel fresh to youngsters who've never seen another movie about teenagers from different worlds finding a common ground in love. But it doesn't have an original idea in its head, and the cinematic subterfuges designed to hide the fact that Stiles isn't a classical dancer — medium shot from the waist up of Stiles doing ballet arms, followed by medium shot from the waist down of a ballet dancer's bourre-ing legs — are clunky and distracting. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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