Save the Last Dance

Scott Hardie: “It ruled.”

When a teen film is smart enough to sidestep (most) clichés and make its characters as intelligent as its viewers, do you praise it for doing only what every movie should do? In this case, I don't much give a damn. Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas are so sympathetic and likeable and, yes, complex that they win the film away from that nagging feeling that this has all been done before. Their romance has appeal because it is not the central element of the film, nor of their lives, nor even of their conversations. It seems borne of genuine affection rather than the needs of a screenplay. The film is good at addressing many "900 pound gorillas in the room" of race and family that would other films would let pass unspoken, although the abrupt ending dodges one such issue, what it will mean for their romance if these two kids wind up going to different universities. Ultimately it doesn't matter: This is a film for the heart, not the mind, the sort of film you can't leave without a dance in your step and a crush on one of the leads.

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