Save the Last Dance

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.
 

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:

• Audio commentary by director Thomas Carter

• The Making Of "Save the Last Dance" featurette: a behind-the-scenes look with cast and crew narratives (19 minutes)

• "Save the Last Dance, A Retrospective" featurette: cast and crew interviews that shed light on the plot and the characters (12 minutes)

• 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".

• Music video of "Crazy" by K-Ci & Jo Jo

• 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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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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Specifications:

- DVD-Video

- Single-sided

- Dual layer

- Region 1

- Run time: approx. 112 minutes

- Subtitle: English

- Menus: Animated

- Scene selection: Static

- Package: Keep case

- 18 chapters
 

Video Features:

- Anamorphic Widescreen

- 1.85:1 aspect ratio
 

Audio Features:

- English: Dolby Digital 5.1

- English: Dolby Surround

- French: Dolby Surround
 

Release Dates:

Theatrical Release:
2001

DVD Release:
06/19/2001

Review Date:
06/17/2001

List price:
$ 29.99

On-line price:
$ 22.49

Pre-order price was:
$ 22.49

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