Save The Last Dance Reviews

Flashdance meets Boyz N the Hood in this crowd-pleasing dance movie from director Thomas Carter. Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate about You) plays the aspiring ballerina who gives up her ambitions after her beloved mother dies in a car crash while speeding to an important audition. Consumed with guilt, Stiles goes to live with her estranged jazz musician father on Chicago's depressed South Side. There she finds herself part of the minority in a mainly black school, coping with racial slurs when she starts dating model student Sean Patrick Thomas. The course of true love doesn't run smoothly, but nights out at the local hip-hop club allow Stiles to broaden her horizons and regain her passion for dance. With its optimistic view of ghetto life, and a ridiculous drive-by shooting subplot that threatens to lure Thomas back to petty criminality, this is fantasy melodrama pure and simple, its fresh hip-hop milieu barely disguising its formula roots. But Stiles and Thomas are attractive leads, the dance sequences make all the right moves, the soundtrack hits the spot and the expected payoff is as uplifting as it is sentimental. This is a perfect example of the Hollywood dream machine at its inoffensive, effortless and engaging best.

"...Well-crafted and smoothly paced, SAVE THE LAST DANCE benefits most strongly from its predominately youthful cast....Lawson and the most appealing Washington make impressions as vivid as those of Stiles and Thomas..."

"...[The film has] smart performances and pulls off the rare trick of tackling some thorny racial issues without becoming blandly moralistic..."

Flashdance meets Boyz N the Hood in this crowd-pleasing dance movie from director Thomas Carter. Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate about You) plays the aspiring ballerina who gives up her ambitions after her beloved mother dies in a car crash while speeding to an important audition. Consumed with guilt, Stiles goes to live with her estranged jazz musician father on Chicago's depressed South Side. There she finds herself part of the minority in a mainly black school, coping with racial slurs when she starts dating model student Sean Patrick Thomas. The course of true love doesn't run smoothly, but nights out at the local hip-hop club allow Stiles to broaden her horizons and regain her passion for dance. With its optimistic view of ghetto life, and a ridiculous drive-by shooting subplot that threatens to lure Thomas back to petty criminality, this is fantasy melodrama pure and simple, its fresh hip-hop milieu barely disguising its formula roots. But Stiles and Thomas are attractive leads, the dance sequences make all the right moves, the soundtrack hits the spot and the expected payoff is as uplifting as it is sentimental. This is a perfect example of the Hollywood dream machine at its inoffensive, effortless and engaging best.

"...Well-crafted and smoothly paced, SAVE THE LAST DANCE benefits most strongly from its predominately youthful cast....Lawson and the most appealing Washington make impressions as vivid as those of Stiles and Thomas..."

"...[The film has] smart performances and pulls off the rare trick of tackling some thorny racial issues without becoming blandly moralistic..."

"...[Stiles'] performance, and her dancing, blossom in a pleasant, spirited way....Thomas projects a potently attractive self-confidence..."

In Footloose, if memory serves, young Kevin Bacon was the cool city kid who got toes tapping and pulses racing in some... read more on Time Out

"...SAVE THE LAST DANCE teaches that you should never give up your dreams and that love is all you need..."