really corny

Rating: 2/10 (22 October 2004)

Lame script, bad directing. The school scenes were so unrealistic -- c'mon, on her very first day at school a black girl completely befriends her out of nowhere and treats her like she's her best friend, even sticking up for her to every other girl in school. Couldn't they at least have set it up better, where Sarah does something to gain her trust, or her friend has a white parent, or anything interesting? Something besides no reason or charity work.
The scenes where they practiced dancing in the empty school room, they were so stupid it was embarrassing to watch. And practicing how to sit? She's white, not a guy. The club dancing scenes, also ridiculous and hard to watch. Show me someone in the room making a comment or something. Wasn't the point of this movie to make a statement about racial tension and acceptance? She hardly had any real problems that weren't easily avoided. Even the eventual "fight" with her boyfriend lasted only 2 minutes and was reconciled for no particular reason.
And too often I always notice Stiles acting, if you know what I mean, which isn't a good thing. Like in a high school play.
The scene in the ER waiting room with her friend going off on her, that was about the only good dramatic scene. And even that was a cliché quote ("black girls don't have enough good black men anymore") that I've heard many times before on TV and movies.
Sarah's constant "I don't want to talk about it" about her boycotting dancing and about her mother...cliché like a bad sitcom. Ooh, but then she overcomes it all in the end, with the help of her boyfriend...how surprising.
This was really painful to watch. I gave it a 2 because I've seen a lot worse movies. The script and filming must have been put together really quickly because it seemed like there wasn't much imagination behind it. I actually thought going into it that there would be some interesting viewpoints or more hard-hitting scenes. I guess I forgot it was an MTV movie.