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Sick Product of a Sick System

Let's be realistic.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

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

This is my favourite movie. It's about a girl that dances ballet but one day she loses her mother. She stops dancing and moves to her father In New York. In her new school she meets a boy that she falls in love with, he is also a dancer and that helps her to start again. Her dream is to get in to Julliard dace school, but it's a long and hard way to get there. This movie is fantastic, it's a drama whit love, hate, hip hop and a lot of dancing. Save the last dance is a movie for everybody that's interested in dancing and hip hop. I give this movie a 10, top notch! I have seen it a thousand times and I will probably see it a thousand more.

Dancing can be defined as movements done in accordance with an accompanying sound or music. Still, dancing is a limitless universal language. Being able to relate and connect to a movie requires not only a good script but a rational way to put film right into the watchers' hearts. In the movie "Save the Last Dance", literary, theatric, and cinematic techniques combine to enhance the message and understanding of the movie. Set in the city of Chicago the main character, Sara, embarks on a journey in a world completely different from the one she knew, getting back to who she is by overcoming hardship. She gives up dancing after her mother dies in a hurry to make it to Sarah's Julliard audition. The new school Sara attends is gritty and underprivileged emphasizing its inner city features. Another set is Sara's father's house, which she has to move too. It is decrepit and greatly contrasts to her previous sheltered and secure life. The tone is the story is sad and cathartic. The theme indulges in this tone because it is about following dreams and overcoming adversity. One grows to credit and trust Sara, allowing one to agree with Sara's judgments or views of others. The hip-hop club that Sara and her new friends always flee to clearly foreshadows the return to her passion for Ballet. One of the prime symbols is falling during a dance. Each time Sara falls during a dance piece a significant event occurs. As Sara dances her mother dies. As Sara trips, her anger overwhelms her dream. When Sara finally masters her dance the fact that she does not fall is significant to her growth not only as a dancer but as a person. One first meets Sara in dark clothes, which reflects her inner isolation. Also, her simple clothes suggest her "simple" lifestyle and detachment from the hard lives others live. The boys in the gritty inner city school are recognizable in their over-sized coats and baggy pants. The girls wear "bling" and flashy pants. When another troublemaker of the story enters, her makeup and clothing is dark. The acting itself it realistic and not overdone. When students share their stories about their hardships, their expressions and sometimes tears seem genuine. Costumes are kept modern for realistic purposes. Props are used minimally in this story, which reinforces the focus on the lives of the kids, thus not distracting the viewer from the messages. It is the cinematic elements that make the movie unique. Opening with eye-level angles and close ups on Sara's face, one meets Sara as she goes through a transition from security to estrangement. Dark and wintery lighting give the effect of sadness, guilt, and apprehension. The movie opens with dark blues, greys, and whites. As flashbacks of happiness occur, one notices the transition from dark to bright clothes and brighter lighting. To show where a character stands in comparison to his or her environment, medium and long shots are used often. The camera moves in a long shot when the movie watcher meets Derek, the future lover and guide to Sara. This definitely makes him stand out and highlights his interest in intelligence in contrast to his classmates. Long shots are used when one meets most of the other characters, including Malakai, the antagonist of the story. Importantly, music is greatly and effectively used. The music plays when there is sadness. Piano solos and string symphony cue when Sara is reminiscing. The music undoubtedly carries the story. It emphasizes sadness, strength, moving forward, and guilt. One major chord can pull a heartstring and such riffs and pitches effectively enhance the emotion.

I think the title pretty much sums up what I'm going to say in this review. I finally got around to watching 'Save the Last Dance', becoming quite tired of the 'How can you not have seen 'Save the Last Dance', it's the best dance film out there!' comments each time the film came up in conversation. And yes, I enjoyed it, it was a good, entertaining film, but it definitely was not one of the greatest things ever created and I don't think it deserves quite as much hype as it receives.The story line has become a cliché by now, girl and boy become romantically involved against a backdrop of dancing. I think that this was one of the first dance films of it's kind though, and you can almost feel that throughout the movie - it feels fresh and original, not like a carbon copy of an already done and dusted formula (such as 'How She Move' felt). Also, I think it's important to mention how influential this film was in encouraging more dance films to be made, some of them rather good too, like Step Up 1 + 2, Take the Lead, etc. However, by now the formula wears thin, and has been done too many times, so even whilst this film was one of the first in it's genre, a viewer watching this for the first time these days already knows what will happen at the end less than 10 minutes into the film, and that's definitely a let down (though, it's hardly a fault that the movie could have prevented, without foresight).The dancing is not the greatest I have ever seen in this genre of film, that would have to go, hands down, to the street-dancing in Step Up 2 (and I do believe that the ballet in Step Up 1 probably deserves second place) but it is good enough for the film, and definitely not the worse I have seen. In fact, Sara's final dance may be one of my favourite routines ever seen on film. I was very surprised to discover Julia Stiles was such a capable, and very skilled ballet dancer - her dancing impressed me far more than her acting in this film (which, although wasn't necessarily bad, was more of her same old style - it's as if she plays the same person in each role, who just happens to be in a completely new situation each time). Kerry Washington also impressed me as the confident, mouthy, and good at heart Chenille and I believe Sean Patrick Thomas also deserves a mention as Derek, as does Fedro Starr as Malakai.Overall, I did like this film, it was fast paced, intelligent, easy watching, and a welcome change to the recent films I have been watching lately which all feel much slower, and emotionally heavy. However, the plot gives this film it's limitations, and although for it's genre it is up there with the best, it's not a film that I would say deserves to be forever remembered in film history. But that again, there are only a few that do.

This is a teen movie. This means it works under strict formulas, ruled by market and by what the big bosses of Hollywood think teenagers want. There is a big contradiction behind the majority of these teens movies.: In most cases (this is no exception) these films tell stories of people who try to outdo themselves. These characters try to make special things, to get over the underdeveloped environments (socially, culturally, economically) from which they come from. So, ordinary people trying to reach special goals, trying to be special people. But than, all these films are perfectly ordinary, made massively, one copying the other, with absolutely nothing special beyond any of them. This one doesn't totally enter that kind of film for one redeeming element, but it practically does it.Here, the female character is someone whose attempt to grab her personal dreams led her (in her view) to a personal downfall, her male match is someone who fits perfectly the stereotype i described above. The matching of one against the other and the conflict this generates is mildly interesting, though not enough to take the film out of its vulgarity. The redeeming element is how dance is used to illustrate this contradiction. Ballet vs hip-hop, internal vs external forms of expression. I frankly thought Julia Stiles didn't go well in this part. She was strangely stiff and uneasy. She has a sober way of acting, but here it sounds like if she wasn't quite sure of how to express, like if she couldn't "dance". Yet the idea of placing dance as a displayer of characters attitudes towards their reality and what happened/may happen to them was interesting. The overall product was quite flawed.My opinion: 2/5 interesting concepthttp://www.7eyes.wordpress.com