Save the Last Dance (2001)

Directed by: Thomas Carter | 112 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro Starr, Terry Kinney, Bianca Lawson, Vince Green, Garland Whitt, Elisabeth Oas, Artel Kayàru, Cory Stewart, Jennifer Anglin, Dorothy Martin, Kim Tlusty, Felicia Fields

It will happen to you. Every day, somewhere in a quiet village, you spin pirouettes on your pointe. Then your mother dies, you suddenly live with your father in the Chicago ghetto and you end up in a predominantly black school where students look dirty at you, deal in the hallway or hip-hop during lunch. All this happens to Sara Johnson. Miraculously, she soon encounters the only two lights in this darkness: the dark Chenille Reynolds and her brother Derek.

When the flashy Chenille takes the stale Sara to the Reynolds’ favorite club, the fun begins. Dozens of hip teenagers dance their hips to the rousing rhythms of Jill Scott, Blaqout and X-2-C. Sara is a bit wooden in the beginning, under Derek’s inspiring leadership she grows into a cool chick that smoothly swings to Murder She Wrote by Chaka Demus & Pilers. Lovely to watch, these Dirty Dancing squared antics.

It becomes extra festive when Sara and Derek fall madly in love with each other. He gets the best out of her. She gets the best out of him. He decides to work on a future as a pediatrician. She takes her tutu out of the closet again and starts a career as a ballerina. He admires her. She admires him.

There is plenty of resistance from the environment. Because as Derek’s best friend Malakai says to Sara: You are milk and he is oil. You can’t mix that. But hey, a little boundless love overcomes every obstacle, right?

‘Save the Last Dance’ is a tasty modern fairy tale. With charming protagonists. Sean Patrick Thomas is adorable as the gentle yet tough Derek and clearly clicks with his co-star Julia Stiles. Of these two, the actress from movies like ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ and ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ steals the show. Her grief for her late mother is palpable. Just like her love for ballet and for Derek.

It is a pity that Sara’s relationship with her father is hardly explored in depth. Only at the end of the film does he come out as a sensitive type. What he thinks of her relationship with Derek is unclear. In any case, it is completely unknown what the white people in Sara’s environment think of her multicultural relationship. While it is raining black opinions. A minus for director Thomas Carter. Which otherwise deserves praise: ‘Save the Last Dance’ is a film to make you happy.