Save the Last Dance
November 20, 2008
Save the Last Dance enjoyed a profitable release in early 2001, with box-office earnings that exceeded anyone’s expectations. Its performance illustrates the staying power of a formulaic movie that avoids the pitfalls and clichés that would otherwise render it forgettable. Since there’s nothing new here, you’ll appreciate the original quirks in a character-based plot that’s just around the corner from Flashdance, and just as familiar. Sara (Julia Stiles) gave up a promising ballet career when her mother was killed while rushing to attend her daughter’s crucial audition to Juilliard; Sara blames herself for the accident, and at her new, mostly African American high school in Chicago, she’s uncertain of her future.
Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) has no such doubts; his own future is bright, and his attraction to Sara is immediate; they connect (predictably), and Sara’s dormant funk emerges, with Derek’s coaching, as she learns hip-hop dancing in a local club. Obligatory subplots are equally routine: Derek’s sister (Kerry Washington) is a single mom struggling with her child’s absentee father; Derek’s best friend (Fredro Starr) feels trapped in his gangsta lifestyle; and Sara’s once-estranged father (Terry Kinney) is doing his best to correct past mistakes. Within the confines of this standard follow-your-dream drama, director Thomas Carter capitalizes on a script that allows these characters to be real, intelligent, and thoughtful about their lives and their futures. It’s obvious that Stiles’s dancing was intercut with that of a professional double, but that illusion hardly matters when the rest of the movie’s so earnestly positive and genuine. –Jeff Shannon
Customer Review: Save the Last Dance - It’s a keeper
Definitely one of my favorite movies. It makes you want to get up and dance during the movie. If you love a good love story, this is a winner for you.
Customer Review: A tasty casserole of movie themes
You’ve got great ingredients for this movie. Julia Styles is wonderful. Sean Patrick Thomas is fantastic. The directing and choreography were first-rate. In lesser hands, the writer could have made a hash out of the well-worn themes in this movie, but instead he worked all these themes together into a coherent whole:
* The “teenage coming of age” movie, like All the Right Moves.
* The “star-crossed young lovers” movie, like Romeo and Juliet.
* The “forbidden interracial love” movie, like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
* The “guilt over the death of someone close to me will only temporarily stop me from performing” movie, like Stomp the Yard (I know: Stomp the Yard is a later film).
* The “overcome adversity to get into a top-notch dance school” movie, like Flashdance.
* The “go to new school with everyone of a different ethnicity than you” movie, like Finding Forrester (yet another great Sean Patrick Thomas movie).
* The “are you going to follow your gang or not” movie, like Boyz N the Hood.
* And, of course, the “broken family trying to heal” movie, like every Disney movie ever made except Peter Pan. Buy from here…
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