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Summary: "Save the Last Dance" is a hip hop,
slammin' (inner-city lingo for "cool") movie about an aspiring ballerina who
gives up her study of dance because she thought she was responsible for her
mother's sudden and tragic death. When she moves in with her estranged father in
an inner-city Chicago neighborhood, she finds inspiration to become a dancer
again from the love and support of her new friends. If you're looking
for a smart romantic drama with good hip-hop dancing action, "Save the Last
Dance" will sweep you off your feet.
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The Story
Julia Styles is Sara, a 17-year old who has been studying
ballet and aspires to become a ballerina. When she auditions to enter a prestigious ballet school, she pressures her
mom to be present for moral support. In a hurry to show up on time for
the audition, her mom gets into a fatal car accident. Sara blames
herself for the death of her mom, and abruptly quits
studying ballet and gives up her dream.
After the funeral, she
moves to Chicago to live with her estranged father, Nick, a trumpet jazz
musician. Here, she goes to a predominantly black school, and makes
the difficult adjustment from small-town suburban life to an inner-city
neighborhood. She meets Chenille (Kerry Washington) and her
brother Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) on the first day of school. Chenille takes in Sara and makes her part of her
clique. And it is through her friendship with Derek (which later turns into
a romantic relationship) that she becomes inspired to pick up her
dreams of becoming a ballerina again.
The story is centers around Sara and Derek's inter-racial relationship
and the issues that come with such relationship. And it is the
realistic treatment of this sensitive and controversial subject by director
Thomas Carter that makes this movie work as well as it does. Though the plot is
somewhat predictable, it is the intense drama that makes this movie
completely engrossing and delightfully entertaining. Julia Styles gives a
sensational performance, in drama acting
as well as in her dance numbers. It's interesting to note that Julia didn't study ballet as
a child and actually picked up ballet very quickly. It's amazing how
certain people are blessed with so much natural talent. Sean Patrick
Thomas, Kerry Washington, and Fredro Starr give equally fantastic drama
performances.
The Extras
"Save the Last Dance" contains a fair amount of bonus
material:
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Audio commentary by director Thomas Carter
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The Making Of "Save the Last Dance" featurette:
a behind-the-scenes look with cast and crew narratives (19 minutes)
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"Save the Last Dance, A Retrospective"
featurette: cast and crew interviews that shed light on the plot and the
characters (12 minutes)
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Deleted scenes: four deleted scenes that
actually builds deeper character studies of supporting characters.
They are presented in anamorphic
widescreen and have the picture quality of the finished film. The
deleted scenes are entitled "record store", "jazz
club", "Chenille's apartment", and
"playground".
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Music video of "Crazy" by K-Ci & Jo Jo
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Theatrical trailer
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is excellent. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is very good. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced and the surround channels are
used effectively. The dialog
is crystal clear, even over the catchy bass-heavy beats of the hip hop
music. The slammin' soundtrack greatly enhances the mood of this hip
hop dance movie.
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Home Video web site.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
