Save the Last Dance



Save the Last Dance is a 2001 American teen dance film produced by MTV Productions, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main character, played by Stiles, train for a dance audition. A direct-to-video sequel, Save the Last Dance 2, was released in 2006.

Plot
Sara Johnson (Julia Stiles), a promising dancer in high school in suburban Chicago, hopes to be admitted to study at Juilliard School and invites her mother to attend the audition. She fails the audition and soon learns that her mother was involved in a fatal car accident in her haste to get to the audition.

Sara is wracked by guilt and gives up on ballet. She moves in with her estranged father (Terry Kinney) and transfers to an inner-city school on the south side of Chicago. Her father is a jazz musician who plays the trumpet and usually plays in nightclubs. At her new school, Sara is one of a handful of white students but quickly befriends Chenille (Kerry Washington), a single teen mother who is having relationship problems. Chenille invites Sara to a dance club called STEPPS, where she has her first experience of dancing to hip hop rhythms. At STEPPS, Sara dances with Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), Chenille's brother and a student with dreams of ultimately attending Georgetown Medical School. He decides to help Sara develop her dancing skills by incorporating more hip hop into her style. Derek takes a reluctant Sara to the Joffrey Ballet and, afterwards, Sara confides in him about her mother and her dreams. Later, they return to the club and amaze others with their dancing. Having achieved his dream of being accepted at Georgetown University, Derek convinces her to follow her dreams of Juilliard. Eventually, Sara and Derek begin a relationship.

At school, Nikki (Bianca Lawson), Derek's jealous ex-girlfriend, picks a fight with Sara. Chenille tells Sara that she didn't approve of the fight but can understand the bitterness since Sara, a white girl, is seen as stealing one of the few decent black men in the school. Because of this conversation, Sara and Chenille's relationship becomes strained and Sara breaks up with Derek. Meanwhile, Derek deals with his friend Malakai (Fredro Starr), who is heavily into the gang lifestyle that Derek is trying to leave. Derek accepts Malakai's plea for support in executing a drive-by at the same time as Sara's audition. Sara's father has a heart-to-heart talk with her and encourages her to audition for Juilliard again.

After hearing what Chenille told Sara, Derek confronts his sister for her words. He explains his true reasons for dumping Nikki and is very disappointed in her for hurting Sara. Remorseful for her actions, Chenille admits what she did was wrong and encourages him to be with Sara. She also warns Derek not to support Malakai knowing the consequences he may face in losing his chance to attend Georgetown if he is arrested. Derek turns his back on Malakai to attend Sara's audition. He arrives at a crucial point of her performance to offer her encouragement and moral support. After her audition, Sara is accepted and she rekindles her relationship with Derek. Meanwhile, the drive-by becomes botched and Malakai is arrested. The film closes as Sara, Derek, Chenille, and their friends meet at STEPPS to celebrate Sara's successful audition.

Cast

 * Julia Stiles as Sara Johnson
 * Sean Patrick Thomas as Derek Reynolds
 * Kerry Washington as Chenille Reynolds
 * Fredro Starr as Malakai
 * Terry Kinney as Roy Johnson
 * Bianca Lawson as Nikki
 * Elizabeth Oas as Diggy
 * Vince Green as Snookie
 * Garland Whitt as Kenny

Home Video
The film was released on DVD and VHS on June 19, 2001.

Box office and reception
The film debuted at #1 at the North American box office making $27.5 million in its opening weekend. Though the film had a 44% decline in earnings the following weekend, it was still enough to keep the film at the top spot for another week. It grossed $91,057,006 in the US alone and $131.7 million worldwide.

Save the Last Dance won several awards, most notably:


 * The 2001 MTV Movie Awards, winning in the category "Best Kiss" for Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas, who also won "Breakthrough Male Performance"; and being nominated for "Best Female Performance" for Julia Stiles and "Best Dance Sequence" for a scene in the hip hop club
 * The 2001 Teen Choice Awards, winning in the categories "Choice Movie: Actress" for Julia Stiles, "Choice Movie: Breakout Star" for Kerry Washington and "Choice Movie: Fight Scene" for Julia Stiles and Bianca Lawson; and being nominated for "Choice Movie: Drama"
 * The 2001 Young Hollywood Awards, winning in the category "Standout Performance — Male" for Sean Patrick Thomas
 * It was also nominated for the 2002 Black Reel Awards in the category "Theatrical — Best Supporting Actress" for Kerry Washington and the 2002 Golden Reel Awards in the category "Best Sound Editing — Music, Musical Feature Film" for the music editor Michael T. Ryan.

Rotten Tomatoes' gave the film a 53% approval rating and summarizes the critical consensus as: "This teen romance flick feels like a predictable rehashing of other movies." Some of the positive reviews are measured in their enthusiasm, with remarks such as, "Look elsewhere for reality or good drama. Look here, however, if you're in the mood for a good heaping of fantasy and some fun"; "a decent, well-put-together romantic drama to hold hands to on the weekend"; and "A sometimes predictable, but mostly enjoyable tale." Salon's reviewer called the film "a bad, friendly, enjoyable movie," observing that "for all its dumb clichés it offers the basic appeal of teen movies: the pleasure of watching kids be kids, acting as they do among themselves instead of how parents and teachers expect them to act."

Roger Ebert rated it three stars out of four: The setup promises cliches, but the development is intelligent, the characters are more complicated than we expect, and the ending doesn't tie everything up in a predictable way.

Soundtrack
The film soundtrack was released on December 19, 2000 through Hollywood Records and consisted of hip hop and R&B music. The soundtrack was a huge success, and made it to several Billboard charts. It peaked at 3 on the Billboard 200, 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, 6 on the Top Soundtracks, 3 on the Top Internet Albums and 2 on the Canadian Albums Chart, and featured two charting singles "Crazy" and "You". Save the Last Dance went both gold and platinum on January 29, 2001 and was certified 2x multi-platinum on May 20, 2002. The Soundtrack won the American Music Award for best Soundtrack in 2002.

Allmusic rated the soundtrack three out of five stars. RapReviews rated it three and a half out of ten.


 * 1) "Shining Through" (Theme from Save the Last Dance) - Fredro Starr & Jill Scott
 * 2) "You" - Lucy Pearl feat. Snoop Dogg & Q-Tip
 * 3) "Bonafide" - X-2-C
 * 4) "Crazy" - K-Ci & JoJo
 * 5) "You Make Me Sick" - Pink
 * 6) "U Know What's Up" - Donell Jones
 * 7) "Move It Slow" - Kevon Edmonds
 * 8) "Murder She Wrote" - Chaka Demus & Pliers
 * 9) "You Can Do It" - Ice Cube feat. Mack 10 & Ms. Toi
 * 10) "My Window" - Soulbone
 * 11) "Only You" - 112 feat. The Notorious B.I.G.
 * 12) "Get It On Tonite" - Montell Jordan
 * 13) "All or Nothing" - Athena Cage
 * 14) "Shining Through" (Theme from Save the Last Dance) [Soulshock & Karlin Bonus Track] - Fredro Starr & Jill Scott
 * 15) "What You Want"  - Mase