Save The Last Dance

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Biography

Save the Last Dance is a 2001 American Romance film|romantic Drama film|drama dance film produced by MTV Films , directed by Thomas Carter (director)|Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial marriage|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, a promising dancer in high school, hopes to be admitted to study at Julliard School and invites her mother to attend the audition. She fails the audition and soon thereafter learns that her mother has been involved in a fatal vehicular accident en route, in her haste, to the audition.

After her mother's death, Sara is wracked by guilt and gives up on ballet. She moves in with her estranged father and changes schools. At her new high school, Sara is one of a handful of white students but quickly befriends Chenille, 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 meets Derek, Chenille's brother and a promising student with dreams of ultimately attending Georgetown University|Georgetown Medical School ; he dedicates himself to helping her develop her talent. As they become closer, Derek takes a reluctant Sara to the Joffrey Ballet and, afterwards, Sara confides in him all about her mother and her dreams. Later, they return to the club and amaze others with their dancing. Having already achieved his dream of being accepted at Georgetown University for college, Derek convinces her that she needs to do what she wants, and to follow her dreams, but she needs to get back into dance shape.

At school, Nikki, Derek's 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 good black men in the school. Because of this, Sara breaks up with Derek.

Sara auditions for Julliard for the second time, and Derek arrives at a crucial point to offer encouragement and moral support. Sara is accepted, and the film closes as Sara, Chenille, Derek, and their friends meet up at STEPPS to celebrate Sara's successful audition.

Cast

Julia Stiles as Sara "Coal Burner" 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

Vince Green as Snookie

Garland Whitt as Kenny

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.

The film was a surprise success in theaters especially with the teenage female audience, and is regarded as having two of the best breakthrough performances for its leading actors, Stiles, and especially Thomas. It was a financial success as well, with box-office earnings of $91,057,006 in the US alone and more than $130 million mark worldwide., Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 2009-07-12.

Save the Last Dance was also successful at a number of movie 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 "Film& nbsp;— Choice Actress" for Julia Stiles, "Film& nbsp;— Choice Breakout Performance" for Kerry Washington and "Film& nbsp;— Choice Fight Scene" for Julia Stiles and Bianca Lawson ; and being nominated as best "Film& nbsp;— Choice Drama"

The 2001 Young Hollywood Awards, winning in the category "Standout Performance& nbsp;— Male" for Sean Patrick Thomas

It was also nominated for the 2002 Black Reel Awards in the category "Theatrical& nbsp;— Best Supporting Actress" for Kerry Washington and the 2002 Golden Reel Awards in the category "Best Sound Editing& nbsp;— Music, Musical Feature Film" for the music editor Michael T. Ryan.

Despite these awards, the movie was not well received by critics or the adult audience. Rotten Tomatoes ' rating assesses the film as "Rotten," with 47 of 92 reviewers panning the film, and summarizes the critical consensus as "This teen romance flick feels like a predictable rehashing of other movies." at Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-12-30. Even the reviews marked "fresh" are hardly enthusiastic, 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.com|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."Charles Taylor. Salon , January 12, 2001. Retrieved 2007-12-30. Roger Ebert rated it three stars out of four, stating that "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."Roger Ebert, , Chicago Sun Times, 2001-01-12

Soundtrack

Year	Title	Chart positions		sales thresholds )
Year	Title	Billboard 200>U.S.	Top R& B/Hip-Hop Albums>U.S. R& B	sales thresholds )
2000	Save the Last Dance Released: December 19, 2000 Label: Hollywood Records	3	2	Recording Industry Association of America\|US : 2x Platinum

Copyright Citations

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