A bundle of issues, wrapped nicely for teens

Rating: Null/10 (28 February 2002)

I finally broke down and saw this movie the other night and was surprised at how much I disliked it. First off, I'm past my teens, but I did dance for a long time growing up, so this film looked interesting. But if you're looking for a dance film, the abysmal "Center Stage" is a better choice. What you'll get with "Save The Last Dance" is an over-dramatized lesson on urban city life. Every issue you can imagine is thrown into this movie, but none of them are focused on nearly enough, making them worthless in the end. Yeah, we learn that Nikki is upset at Sara for stealing all the good black men. And we learn about teenage motherhood. But none of them are developed enough. Why is Nikki all happy at the end while watching Sara dance? Did I miss something?
Sean Patrick Thomas was very good, I'll admit, but his character was too sweet to be real. Julia Stiles is a bit too strong of a personality here. Sara is a strange character, I can't explain why. Chenille was cute, but the actress looked 10 years too old for the role. The minor characters were walking stereotypes, especially Malakai. I'd give the best actor award to the guy who played Sara's father. He was the most real of all the characters.
The dancing sequences weren't captivating at all. The camera angles change constantly to hype the audience, but they just annoyed me. Obviously, Julia had a pointe-double, and I couldn't stand the camera switching between the two. It really killed any intensity that Julia's final dance might have had. I wouldn't really call this a "dance movie". It's more of an urban movie disguised as a dance movie to lure in middle-class, white, teenaged girls. Too bad the movie shows black, city life in such a negative way.