Save The Last Dance Description
With her dreams of becoming a professional
ballerina decimated by the accidental death of her mother, Sara
Johnson (Stiles) is forced to move from her quiet Midwestern town
to her father's ghetto apartment on the south side of Chicago. The
stark urban environment's contrast of race and class compound
Sara's loss and her misplaced guilt, which are both exacerbated by
the fact that her mother had been en route to her dance
performance at the time of her death. But when she meets Derek
(Sean Patrick Thomas), a popular black student with a passion for
hip-hop and a future brighter than his troubled past, her
repressed ambition and sorrow are released through a revitalized
interest in the cathartic and expressive power of dance. Their
friendship and mutual interest in dancing inexorably lead to a
passionate romance that raises the sadly typical, bigoted
resistance from Sara's white father and Derek's black friends.
Widely hailed by critics for being as sophisticated and
intelligent as it is viscerally passionate, SAVE THE LAST DANCE
enjoyed the top of the American box office in its first weekend in
release, playing to sold out shows across the country, a landslide
affirmation that Sara and Derek are not as alone as they think.
Theatrical release: January 12, 2001.
In preparation for the dance performances, Stiles and Thomas spent
eight hours every weekend in dance studios and made regular visits
to Chicago hip-hop clubs.
Sara's rural hometown was filmed in Lemont, Illinois.
Sara's ballet auditions were filmed at the Chicago Theater, the
Schubert Theater, and the Athenaeum Theater.
SAVE THE LAST DANCE was number one at the box office on it's first
weekend, taking in more than $27 million over the three-day Martin
Luther King Day weekend.
"You come and take one of the few decent
men left after drugs, jail and drive-bys."-- Chenille
(Washington) to Sara (Stiles)
"We spend more time defending our relationship than actually
having one."
"...[Stiles'] performance, and her dancing,
blossom in a pleasant, spirited way....Thomas projects a potently
attractive self-confidence..."
"...SAVE THE LAST DANCE teaches that you
should never give up your dreams and that love is all you
need..."
"...[The film has] smart performances and
pulls off the rare trick of tackling some thorny racial issues
without becoming blandly moralistic..."
"...Well-crafted and smoothly paced, SAVE
THE LAST DANCE benefits most strongly from its predominately
youthful cast....Lawson and the most appealing Washington make
impressions as vivid as those of Stiles and Thomas..."
"...The development is intelligent, the
characters are more complicated than we expect and the ending
doesn't tie everything up in a predictable way....[Stiles is] one
of the most talented of the emerging generation of
actresses..."
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