Disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (16 April 2001)

I'd heard a lot about this movie, so I expected it to be pretty good... but I was very disappointed. The only thing I really enjoyed about this movie was the soundtrack, which had some great hip hop and r'n'b songs on it, and the dancing was fun to watch. I found the plot a little too mixed up for my tastes - the movie tried to cover a lot of issues (a white girl fitting into a black neighbourhood, lack of opportunities for people living in such a neighbourhood, bi-racial relationships, being a teenage single mother and the death of a parent) but I felt it just skimmed over them briefly as sub-plots to try and add some substance to a pretty thin story. I found the whole movie a rather unsatisfactory affair, with nothing really being resolved apart from the movie's "heroine", Sara, being accepted at top dance school Julliard. The acting wasn't bad, but I felt Julia Stiles was miscast as Sara - she didn't seem very comfortable with the role, and appeared rather stiff. There also seemed to be a complete lack of chemistry between her and Derek, her on-screen boyfriend, which, if it had existed may have made up for some of the movie's other shortcomings. Overall, a very schmaltzy, cliched affair with no real substance or anything (except for the soundtrack) worthy of merit. A huge disappointment.