Better than I expected!

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2002)

I did not expect to enjoy the film as much as I did, being classified as a romance/dance film. However the underplayed romance and minimal dance left alot of room for the drama of the characters to evolve. A confronting tearjerker which I felt did not slip into too many cliches, and seemed more real to me than alot of Hollywood "teen" movies. I liked the fact that it was set in a gritty neighbourhood in Chicago, people were poor, had problems and were trying to cope, but these issues were not overdramatised. It was a nice change from the white middle-class affluence portrayed in most Hollywood films. This film has SOUL.