formulaic start turns melodramatic

Rating: 6/10 (25 November 2015)

Ballet dancer Sara Johnson (Julia Stiles) begs her mother to attend her Julliard School audition. She is heart-broken when her mother dies in a car crash rushing to her audition. She is forced to live with her estranged father Roy (Terry Kinney) in the rough part of Chicago. The school is almost all-black. She befriends teen mom Chenille Reynolds (Kerry Washington) but doesn't get along with her brother Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) ... at first.
It starts as a pretty simple formulaic story offering many clichés of an inner-city neighborhood. Julia Stiles could be a little softer in the beginning but her character is closed off from the tragedy. Her chemistry with Thomas is functional. It's always surprising to rediscover that somebody like Kerry Washington was a major supporting actress. The movie does offer sincere melodramatic turns. I wouldn't call this realism. It's sincere star-crossed lovers in the ghetto.