SAVE THE LAST DANCE

Susan Granger’s review of “SAVE THE LAST DANCE” (Paramount Pictures)

It’s hard to argue with success and this romantic drama has definitely struck a chord with its target audience: teens. While dealing with the weighty themes of family, grief, responsibility, urban violence and cross-racial romance, screenwriters Duane Adler and Cheryl Edwards and director Thomas Carter concentrate on the growing attraction between a blond ballerina (Julia Stiles), who has recently moved from suburbia to Chicago’s South Side to live with her bohemian, jazz trumpeter father (Terry Kinney) after her mother’s death in a highway accident, and a black club kid (Sean Patrick Thomas). They’re high-school seniors and they’re both passionate about dance. She’s turned on by his energetic hip-hop moves and he digs the funky frolic beneath her frosty surface. Friendship comes first, then love. But she wants to study ballet at Julliard and he wants to study pediatric medicine at Georgetown University. The inner-city plot is contrived and formulaic with a trite, hackneyed climax, but the two leading players elevate the concept. Julia Stiles, last seen on-screen as Ophelia to Ethan Hawke’s “Hamlet,” is not only beautiful to look at but her voice is cultured and cultivated. She exudes warmth and intelligence. Sean Patrick Thomas, best known for TVs “The District,” radiates intensity and inner conflict as an ambitious Afro-American who respects his roots even as he works to break free of their constraints. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Save the Last Dance” is a high steppin’, soulful 7 – an updated “Flashdance” for the MTV audience. A warning for suburban adults: if you’re not familiar with ghetto kids’ lingo, you may at times be clueless as to what they’re saying.

07
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