The Exception To Teen Romance Movies' Rule Of Sucking

Rating: 7/10 (23 September 2006)

*Save The Last SPOILER*
Young Sarah (Julia Stiles), who wanted above everything to enter into Julliard, decides to give up her dream after her mother dies in a car accident while coming to see her at a tryout.
She also has to leave the quiet little town she lived in and move to Chicago, to live with her father (Terry Kinney).
She ends up living with him in a 'not so good' part of town, where she is enrolled in a high school where most students (and teachers) are African-American.
She manages to make some friends, though, like the spunky Chenille (Kerry Washington), and even to find someone to love; Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), Chenille's brother.
But as we all know, 'the course of true love (and to the Julliard) ne'er runs smooth'; the racist mentality of some (black) people, or the wannabe gangsta Malakai (Fredro Starr), are some of the obstacles this couple will have to face, in order to reach a well-deserved happy end...
Curiously, despite being a typical teen-romance movie, 'Save The Last Dance' manages to be entertaining, involving and sweet, without anyone risking to go into diabetic coma, or roll his eyes at blatant romanticism or dumb things done by the characters, whichever comes first, becoming therefore the exception to Teen Romance Movies Rule N°1 -Melodramatic crap.
Save The Last Dance: 7/10.