Another Predictable Teen Flick

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2001)

Since the advent of the MTV age, Hollywood has been obsessed with films aimed at the teen generation. A disjointed love story mixed with a half-decent soundtrack has always been a recipe for success amongst America's youth. Julia Stiles (Ten Things I Hate About You) is just one of the young starlets who have been moulded into a stereotypical teen actress and her role as Sara in Save The Last Dance is no different.
Keen ballet dancer Sara has been forced to move to Chicago to stay with her father after the death of her mum back in the mid-west. In a predominantly black school, she finds solace through tough but clever student, Derek (Patrick Thomas). As the pair become closer through their love of dancing, the racial tension grows with Derek's jealous ex (Bianca Lawson) singling out Sara. Derek fares little better as his best friend Malakai (Fredro Starr) also decides a white-black combination simply doesn't fit.
Julia Stiles is used to a Shakespearean theme after the remakes of Othello (O), The Taming of the Shrew (Ten Things I Hate About You) and Hamlet. She remains on familiar ground here as Save The Last Dance is essentially a cross between Romeo and Juliet and Dirty Dancing. The main problem simply lies with the predictability of it all: it's all been seen and done before.
The dance scenes are for the most part well choreographed, although the constant cutting of the director does become annoying. The script flows neatly too, but again some scenes spoil the whole balance. Sara's dance scene in the all-black club with everyone cheering is reminiscent and just as ridiculous as Sylvester Stallone being cheered by the Russians in Rocky 4.
Similarly the girl's cat-fight is as tame as a Frank Bruno bout, yet Sara ends up looking like she's gone twelve rounds with Tyson. It simply doesn't wash.
Save The Last Dance is a reasonable film with a decent soundtrack, but if you're looking for something with substance that might surprise you then you're not going to find it here.
The biggest tragedy of them all is that Julia Stiles is a genuinely good actress. Her only problem is that she's stuck in the same mould as Kirsten Dunst and Natalie Portman and until she can find that role to define her it looks as if she's going to be stuck in conventional teen flicks like this.
6/10
Kerry Wilkinson