Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2625 in VHS
• Released on: 2002-03-04
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dolby, PAL, Surround Sound
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Save the Last Dance enjoyed a profitable release in early 2001, with box-office earnings that exceeded anyone's expectations. Its performance illustrates the staying power of a formulaic film that avoids the pitfalls and clichés that would otherwise render it forgettable. Since there's nothing new here, you'll appreciate the original quirks in a character-based plot that's just around the corner from Flashdance, and just as familiar. Sara (Julia Stiles) gave up a promising ballet career when her mother was killed while rushing to attend her daughter's crucial audition to Juilliard; Sara blames herself for the accident, and at her new, mostly African-American high school in Chicago, she's uncertain of her future.

Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) has no such doubts; his own future is bright, and his attraction to Sara is immediate; they connect (predictably), and Sara's dormant funk emerges, with Derek's coaching, as she learns hip-hop dancing in a local club. Obligatory subplots are equally routine: Derek's sister (Kerry Washington) is a single mom struggling with her child's absentee father; Derek's best friend (Fredro Starr) feels trapped in his gangster lifestyle; and Sara's once-estranged father (Terry Kinney) is doing his best to correct past mistakes. Within the confines of this standard follow-your-dream drama, director Thomas Carter capitalises on a script that allows these characters to be real, intelligent, and thoughtful about their lives and their futures. It's obvious that Stiles's dancing was intercut with that of a professional double, but that illusion hardly matters when the rest of the film's so earnestly positive and genuine. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Sara Johnson is forced to move to Chicago following the death of her mother. There she finds life very different to the one she left behind in the quiet Midwestern town. Things look up for Sarah when she meets Derek, who shares her passion for dancing.

From the Back Cover
Sara (Julia Stiles) is a small town girl with a big dream: to become a world class ballerina. But when her mother suddenly dies, Sara must abandon her plans and join her estranged father (Terry Kinney) on Chicago's gritty South Side. A white girl in a predominantly black neighbourhood, Sara feels out of place - until she is befriended by a black classmate, Chenille (Kerry Washington), and her handsome brother, Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas). Sparks fly between Sara and Derek, whose shared love for dance leads to romance. But as Sara and Derek's relationship grows, so does opposition from their families and friends. Now Sara and Derek face the biggest challenge of their young lives - to stay true to their dreams....and each other.

Customer Reviews

The Only Thing You Have To Be Is Yourself !!!
With a mix of hip hop and slick dancing, Sara (Julia Stiles) plays a young wannabe ballet dancer until her mom is involved in a fatal accident where she hangs up her ballet shoes and her hopes of ballet and go's to live with her father in the south-side of Chicago, where she starts a new school and she gets to meet new people and new ways of life which include drugs, Drive By Shootings and Violence. Thats where she meets a African/American Teenager Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas). At first they are at each others throats but then start to grow a budding relationship. When Derek's sister Chenille asks Sara to go to the hottest nightclub hangout 'STEPPES'. Sara and Derek find out that they bothlike dance and realise they have something special. This is the start of a love relationship with thrills, Hot Dance Moves and top tunes from top hip-hop artist such as Snoop Dogg, 112, Chaka Demus and Pliars, Kci and Jo Jo and Lucy Pearl. With a Top Soundtrack the film is Brilliant. The Question asked is The Last Dance Saved. Its upto you to find out. Against all odds they overcome the obstacles to reach their dream and realise THE ONLY THING U HAVE TO BE IS YOURSELF !!!

Watch this film!!!!
I have to say how surprised I was after I had finished watching this film, I honestly did not expect it to be as good as it was! It's a classic formula of girl meets guy, guy helps girl through hard time but will it end happily ever after?! There are a couple of crucial moments in the film when you know it could all go completely wrong and end tragically but you'll have to watch it for yourself to see what does actually happen! The film reminded me a lot of Dirty Dancing and Flashdance but it's unique in it's own way and the portrayal of the street gangs and the shootings was scarily all too realistic.
Both Julia Stiles (Ten Things I hate about you) and Sean Patrick Thomas (Cruel Intentions) are fantastic though the film also introduces some great new talent: 'Chenille' played by Kerry Washington is one of my favourite characters of the film.
The music in the film is great too and is not as dominantly hip hop as you might expect so when you've bought the film, you can buy the soundtrack too! Enjoy!

I LOVED IT, BUT * * *
"Save the Last Dance" tries to squeeze inner city violence, single parenthood and unresolved guilt feelings into a story about a teenage, ex-ballerina who finds a new energy when she's forced to leave the comfortable white suburbs for a life on the grittier Chicago south side. The result works much better than you might expect.

"... Dance" stumbles into a few too many subplots and a couple of cliched characters along the way. But it also makes some strong points about contemporary attitudes toward interracial romances. In Sydney Poitier's now seemingly quaint "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" the idea of an African-American man dating a white woman still had shock value. But "... Dance" asks us how far have we come, and how much further do we have to go.

The movie begins with Sara (Julia Stiles), an ex-dancer who once dreamed of attending Juilliard. She still grieves over the death of her mother and struggles to make a new home for herself in the slum-like apartment of her estranged dad (Terry Kinney, whose character seems so potentially rich, it's a shame it's not more developed). One of the very few white students in her new school, Sara is immediately out of place, especially after she's defeated in a debate in her English class by the well-read Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas). Eventually, the two overcome their differences thanks to their love of dance.

The screenplay mercifully sidesteps the cliché trap of dwelling on Sara's ignorance of hip-hop culture: Clearly, this isn't a film about how the out-of-it white girl learned to conquor the moves. Rather, Sara finds her niche and footing rather quickly instead of turning into a clueless nerd.

Who would believe that Stiles needed rescuing? Her face looks fragile, but her eyes show she has a keen understanding of everything around her. At only 18 years of age, the actress projects insights of someone much older. Stiles is well matched with Thomas, who almost has the presence of a young Sidney Poitier. Also his elastic body is like a young Bobby Brown. Thomas is shorter than Stiles -- another interesting choice by the filmmaker. But the characters seem to be on the same plane intellectually and in terms of their goals: Dedrek has his heart set on attending Georgetown to become a doctor.

One great moment that demolishes a stereotype is when Derek tells Sara of his wanting to become a pediatrician because he likes kids. Sara gingerly asks him if he has any of his own kids. "No!" Derek replies, slightly offended. "Do you?!"

Most of her classmates don't see Sara as a threat, at first. But things change when she and Derek begin to fall in love. Even Derek's sister Chenille (Kerry Washington), who's been Sara's loyal friend up until this point, becomes a bit chilly.

Chenille is bitter about the careless attitudes of so many of the men she's known. She's already had a child with a boyfriend who barely takes the time to drop by and see his son and her now. But Chenille's proud of her brother's achievements and ambitions, and becomes upset that he's attracted to a white woman. In a scathing speech that she will later regret, she lays everything out for Sara, expressing things that a lot of women in her situation may feel but never get to say it. Sara becomes just another white girl who thinks she can come into the 'hood and steal (from the black women) the best man that she finds.

Derek's friends accuse him of "snowflaking" and warn him that it won't last. Alas, we never find out how Sara's dad feels about Sara dating Derek, but she doesn't seem to be in a hurry to introduce the two men. Maybe that's supposed to tell us that there might be a problem. We're left guissing. When Sara tries to discuss with Derek the controversy they've caused she says, "We spend more time defending our relationship than we spend having a relationship." Director Carter approaches Sara and Derek's relationship with uncertainty. It's a smart approach to take in a nation that endorses diversity more readily in public than it does at home.

"Save the Last Dance" has a fair amount of choreography. Stiles and Thomas seem to perform most of their own dances, and they're both pretty good at it (although body double dance pros take over the complicated moves). Unlike various breakdancing extravaganzas of the mid-1980s, this movie doesn't come to a stand still when the music stops playing. Even by taking the dancing out of the film, there'd still be left a well-acted, thought-provoking story. Few musicals can accomplish that.

Aside from weakness in its too many sub-plot and a few clichés here and there, "Save the Last Dance" does many other things right. The complicated friendship between Sara and charismatic Chenille is nicely resolved at the very end under the closing credits, when it's the girls who are dancing together, joyous in their shared love of music.