Clichéd, but better than I expected it to be

Rating: Null/10 (21 May 2002)

When Sara's mother is killed in a car accident she comes to live in a predominately black area in Chicago. She is befriended by black Chenille and starts to fall for her brother Derek. Derek teaches her the latest hip-hop dances to help her fit in and together they begin to fall for each other. However a white girl seeing a clever black man is never going to be popular and the couple must overcome many obstacles to see their dreams and be true to themselves.
Did someone say `a black Dirty Dancing?' Essentially that's what this is, although the story is naturally a bit more urban than that film. The story is about overcoming to reach your dreams, and it does it quite well  better than I expected. The love story is nice without being too romanticised. The obstacles are the usual things in an `urban' film  the challenge of mixed race relationships, the temptation to back up your crew instead of getting out etc. These are quite cliched but are still well done.
My main problem came with the strength of black culture in the filmnot every black person (even in a poor area) talks like a gangstaand not everyone says `aiiiirite'  and why did Sara only become accepted when she started to imitate black culture and speak in that way. It may be realistic, but I felt that Sara should have been allowed to be herself rather than be seen to be assimilated into the hip-hop culture (I don't mean that she shouldn't have got involved with the scene  but did she have to lose part of herself to get there?). However these are minor side issues that many people won't even think about.
The cast are good for MTV teens. Julia Stiles is cool and Thomas is cute and charming. The rest of the cast fall into so many black stereotypes  we have gangsta friend, baby mothers galore, useless baby father, jealous bitchy ex-girlfriends etc. However they are just what you expect so I wasn't too upset. Fredro Starr was cool as Malakai  even if the character was just one big hood cliché.
The soundtrack is hot and the dance scenes are sexy  I wish I could do it! They are much more enjoyable than Dirty Dancing's scenes  although some day this will feel dated too! Overall I expected another piece of MTV teen tat, but I was pleasantly surprised by a story that, despite being ridden with clichés, is actually very involving and enjoyable.