GazerRise Fantastic!

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mihai Toma After the death of her mother and some failed auditions to Julliard, a talented young girl is forced to move to her father's. There, she find a new dance style (besides the ballet) in the name of Hip-Hop, which she doesn't know anything about. With the help of some new friends, she begins to learn the new art, but not everyone is as friendly as they appear so new problems begin to find their way into her life. Together with her new boyfriend, she'll have to find a way to overcome her fears and trauma from the past, thus being able to follow her dream.It's an interesting movie which features a big change in a girl's life and what she must do to cope with every-day problems. It's enjoyable and entertaining through its hip-hop beats and dancing but let's you down when it comes to story. The characters, although pretty well described, have the tendency to take radical decisions out of a sudden, without any logic or meaning, just to affect the course of events and generate a bit more drama. The plot is simplistic and predictable, doing nothing to impress or at least raise the bar a bit. It's a good movie overall, especially if you enjoy music and dancing, like I do, otherwise it would be a mediocre movie which can be easily skipped.

oOoBarracuda Save the Last Dance is a film I can put on anytime, regardless of my mood, and enjoy it. The Thomas Carter film from 2001, is not a light film by any means, dealing with race relations and the death of a young girl's mother and her drive to overcome the associated guilt she feels as responsible for her mother's death. Starring Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas, Save the Last Dance is one I enjoy because its subject matter never loses its relevance, and the human emotions are presented in a very real way affecting the audiences with every viewing. Sara Johnson (Julia Stiles), has always dreamed of being a ballerina, her mother has always been wholly supportive of her dreams, which is why it was so important to Sara that her mother was present at her audition for Julliard. Her mother, a florist with an incredibly busy schedule and informs Sara that she will be unable to attend her audition. Sara is devastated and begs her mother to adjust her schedule and be there for her big moment. Her mother is unable to turn her down and commits to being there. As Sara begins her audition, she is saddened to not see her mother in the audience and goes on unsuccessfully to complete her audition. A trooper informs Sara after her audition that her mother has been killed in an accident. Sara drops to the floor in despair, and her life is uprooted. Sara now has to move to be with a father she barely knows who has been absent most of her life and resume in a high school in an impoverished urban area of town. Sara has lived a homogeneous existence up to this point in her life and hasn't experienced much diversity so her new school and address are an incredible culture shock for her. After a tough adjustment, Sara is finally befriended by Chenille (Kerry Washington) who takes her under her wing, introducing her to friends at school and taking her to the hot dance club where a majority of students spend their free time. Sara also meets Chenille's brother Derek, a smart young man who must overcome the negative influences of the friends he surrounds himself with so he can better his life and attend Georgetown University. Derek decides to teach Sara the kind of dancing she will need to blend in at the dance club, and the two quickly fall in love. Throughout their union, Derek discovers the passion and talent Sara has for ballet and works with her to encourage her to resume her passion and audition for Julliard again. Sara is reluctant, as she feels she cannot make such a big step without her mother, but the confidence Derek bestows upon her may be the final push she needs to succeed. In a time and place in which interracial relationships are not looked upon highly, Derek and Sara must decide if their love for one another is worth overcoming the many stumbling blocks their relationship faces. Julia Stiles plays the complicated emotionally charged part of Sara quite well. Sean Patrick Thomas just exudes charisma each moment he is on-screen and shares an infectious chemistry with Stiles. Kerry Washington drives the story quite well, proving that she was just as brilliant of an actress we know her to be now 15 years ago. The score and choreography are spellbinding and takes up most of the film, while simultaneously driving a beautiful story. Oftentimes, in a teen dancing movie, the plot is neglected for the dancing, but that problem does not occur in Save the Last Dance, thankfully. While it does not enjoy much critical acclaim, I found the film an enjoyable narrative dealing with tough issues as suppressed guilt and interracial relationships in a meaningful and powerful way.

Python Hyena Save the Last Dance (2001): Dir: Thomas Carter / Cast: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kerry Washington, Terry Kinney, Bianca Lawson: Recycled drivel about the differences in cultures and styles. Title regards the ability to not give up on what is important. Too bad the screenwriter didn't do the same. Julia Stiles plays a student who used to be a dancer but after her mother died in a car accident on her way to an audition she has since left that passion. She gets settled in with her father and goes to an urban school where most of the students are black. Director Thomas Carter does a fine job with a screenplay laden with obvious clichés but it is a far cry from his wasted efforts with Metro. Stiles is a wonderful performer but she is basically following a laid out track that will end where we know it. Sean Patrick Thomas is the black male she becomes involved with whom encourages her to continue dancing. Kerry Washington plays her best friend who happens to be Thomas's sister. She is a mother dealing with an irresponsible father to her baby. Terry Kinney as Stiles's father is one note at best. Bianca Lawson plays Thomas's ex-girlfriend whose role predictably has her starting a confrontation with Stiles and just plainly being a pain in the ass. Its theme regarding interracial relationships is weighted under familiarity. Save your money as oppose to the last dance with this drivel. Score: 2 / 10

Melissa This movie is so under-rated. No, it may not be the most original storyline, but it contains so much more than a story about a girl who dances, and meets a guy that dances. It's about a girl who's trying to find her way in a life that suddenly gets turned right on its head. She loses her mom, her best friend and her biggest supporter, blaming herself for the accident that kills her mom. That amount of guilt would make anyone give up their dream, and Sarah is no different. She doesn't feel like she deserves to be happy anymore, like she should feel guilty for doing what she's always dreamed of doing, because of what happened. She's forced to live with a father she barely knows, and becomes part of a society she doesn't understand and doesn't fit into. And then comes Derek, the first person that cares enough to dig through the walls Sarah's built around herself. He's the first person to understand where she's coming from, and he helps her meld her world with his. It's a great movie. I've loved it since the first time I watched it--people shouldn't write it off so much. There's meat beneath the seemingly superficial salad on the surface.