This movie recognizes the value of dance and of love. I walked out of the theater feeling very happy.
Save the Last Dance (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:96
Fresh:51
Rotten:45
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: This teen romance flick feels like a predictable rehashing of other movies.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for violence, sexual content, language and brief drug references
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Jan 12, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $90,696,166
Synopsis:
Sara's life is devoted to dance -- she wants nothing more than to make it into New York's famous Julliard School. But when tragedy strikes and she loses her mom, her hopes are dashed and she buries...
Sara's life is devoted to dance -- she wants nothing more than to make it into New York's famous Julliard School. But when tragedy strikes and she loses her mom, her hopes are dashed and she buries her dreams of ever attending the country's best dance school.
Without her Mom to support her, Sara moves to the tough streets of Chicago's South side to live with her Dad -- a down on his luck jazz musician who she barely knows. Her new school's a totally different world from the small town she grew up in, but Sara's quick comebacks and sassy attitude earn her the quick respect and friendship of straight-talking Chenille. But it's Chenille's brother, Derek, the cool and good-looking star of the school, who grabs Sara's attention. He plays it up tough, but he also has the smarts and a plan to go to medical school.
When Chenille takes Sara to Steppes, the neighborhood hang, she gets her first taste of hip-hop -- and Derek's the one to show her the moves. When they discover they share a passion for dance, they discover that there's something deeper going on -- a passion for each other. But they soon find out the hard way that they must not only overcome their own differences, but the resentment and bad blood of their friends and family. As the school year goes on, the couple finds that their affection and devotion to each other could ultimately threaten Derek's hopes for a better life and Sara's rediscovery of her dance.
Yet against all the odds they overcome the obstacles to their dreams, and discover that ultimately the only person you have to be is...yourself.
Starring: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Terry Kinney, Fredro Starr
Starring: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Terry Kinney, Fredro Starr, Kerry Washington, Bianca Lawson
Director: Thomas Carter
Director: Thomas Carter
Producer: Robert W. Cort, David Madden
Screenwriter: Duane Adler, Cheryl Edwards
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Paramount Pictures
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Reviews for Save the Last Dance
... a worthwhile film that’s an unusually honest portrayal of teen life.
Squanders nice performances by Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas by confining them and the supporting cast to cookie-cutter roles and hackneyed inner-city subplots.
It may be the latest teen flick, but Last Dance has a story and life issues and relationships with bite.
To the film's credit, it tries, and while it never really sings, it does deliver the dance.
It's just a pity for the actors and the audience that the theme of conquering one's background, prejudices, and limitations has to be spelled out in block capitals.
The playing of ballet against hip-hop gets more than a little corny, but the charismatic young performers make the corn work.
A tepid movie with a few decent dance sequences and a lot of frustrating sexual tension.
The setup promises cliches, but the development is intelligent, the characters are more complicated than we expect, and the ending doesn't tie everything up in a predictable way.
This is a rare teen romance where the couple seems drawn together less by animal attraction than by a shared sense of openness and possibility.
As MTV movies go, it's got decent work in it, thanks entirely to Stiles, Thomas, and the fact that there are almost no adults in the picture.
Though the movie suffers from cornball plot twists and clunky dialogue here and there, it stays true to itself... an admirable trait.
Overall, Save the Last Dance profits from well-developed principals, a vigorous sound track provided by Mark Isham, and a feel for the grit and warmth alike of an otherwise impoverished neighborhood.
Seems more concerned with pushing demographic style buttons than creating a story with any depth.
The intent is a feel-good film, sort of an American version of Billy Elliot and I didn't believe a minute of it.
There's a nice little dance movie waiting to step out of Save the Last Dance. Unfortunately, the story keeps tripping it up.
Latest News for Save the Last Dance
February 13, 2008:
Total Recall: It's a Dance Dance Revolution
Audiences have been historically dismissive of all the critical contempt, pushing dozens of fancy-footed extravaganzas to the upper reaches of the box-office charts.
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July 11, 2007:
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If you watched "Live Free or Die Hard" and thought, "Gee, what I'd really like to see is Mary Elizabeth Winstead with less clothing and more dancing," this... More...
August 09, 2006:
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