Please take my dissertation survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm =TpGqCQpdD00nRBRQt8uNww_3d_3d ...
Please take my dissertation survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm =TpGqCQpdD00nRBRQt8uNww_3d_3d It takes just 10 minutes to complete. Thanks
Member since:05.12.2005
Reviews:119
Members who trust:89
The Story: Sara Johnson is an aspiring young ballet dancer, well on her way to making it big. That is, until her mother gets into a car crash on the way to an audition Sara made her mum promise to attend. Distraught from her mum’s death and devastated from her poor audition, Sara is forced to move to Chicago and live with her father. It’s quite a culture shock to Sara and she had trouble fitting in – a lone white face in a predominantly black school, where security checks and body searches are carried out before you’re allowed into class. A friendly face, Chenille, takes Sara under her wing and introduces her to her brother, Derek. Sara may be an established ballet dancer, but she doesn’t know any hip-hop to fit into the local dance scene. Derek befriends Sara and becomes her dance teacher. Their relationship develops due to their love of dance, but they still have a whole host of obstacles to overcome.
Opinion: Julia Stiles does an excellent job playing Sara Johnson, and shows she skill as both an actress and a dancer. For someone who wasn’t classically trained in ballet before the movie started, she pulled off the intense dance sequences remarkably well. Julia Stiles also has great on-screen chemistry with Sean Patrick Thomas, the leading male. Like Julia, Sean also shows he’s a good dancer as well as actor. The pair really do make this movie work.
The dance scenes in the movie are very impressive, both in the way they are carried out and incorporating such different dance styles (ballet and hip hop) into one, seamless, dance routine. It’s clear a lot of work went into making them look authentic and time went into making the actors look right doing them.
In a film revolving largely around dance, music is going to play a big part. While all the music is well chosen and appropriate to the scene, the soundtrack as a whole isn’t that remarkable and it certainly isn’t one I’d consider owning as a stand alone CD.
On the whole there are no major plot holes and the story flows smoothly towards a somewhat inevitable ending. My main issue with this move is the extent of the use of stereotypes. One of the main plot points is racism, and that’s a core issue that needs to be addressed, but this movie seems to make all the African-American characters very black (they seem incapable of finishing a sentence without phrases such as ‘it’s aye’t’ and ‘you know what I’m saying?’), and all the Caucasians very white (they all go to ballet, drink tea, and can’t dance to hip hop). There are several times where you can see the actor almost struggling to get the lines out because its so unnatural for them to speaking like that. That said, it’s actually quite entertaining to watch the movie with subtitles on, as the subtitles show up in full, grammatically correct sentences, which bare little relevance to what’s actually coming out of the characters mouth!
Conclusion: This is a largely enjoyable movie, with a story that holds its own from beginning to end. The cast was nicely selected and stand well in their roles. My main issue with this movie is the sheer extent it plays off racial stereotypes, but aside from that, it’s just a good, romantic, movie.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Save the Last Danceenjoyed a profitable release in early 2001, with box-office earnings ... more
that exceeded anyone's expectations. Its performance illustrates the staying power of a formulaic film that avoids the pitfalls and clichés that would otherwise ren...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Save the Last Danceenjoyed a profitable release in early 2001, with box-office earnings ... more
that exceeded anyone's expectations. Its performance illustrates the staying power of a formulaic film that avoids the pitfalls and clichés that would otherwise ren...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Sara is a small-town girl with a big dream: to become a world class ballerina. But when ... more
her mother suddenly dies, Sara must abandon her dreams and join her estranged father on Chicago's gritty South Side. A white girl in a predominately black neighborh...
Advantages: The music, issues relevant to our time, generally well done film with great acting and characters Disadvantages: The Romeo & Juliet story is all too common
Advantages: The music, issues relevant to our time, generally well done film with great acting and characters Disadvantages: The Romeo & Juliet story is all too common
![Save The Last Dance Dvd [2001]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78527354.jpg "Save The Last Dance Dvd [2001]")
Apr 20th, 2007
very helpful by (99%):
helpful by (1%):
