Synopsis
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
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Cast
- Julia StilesSara Johnson
- Sean Patrick ThomasDerek Reynolds
- Kerry WashingtonChenille Reynolds
- Fredro StarrMalakai
- Terry KinneyRoy Johnson
- Bianca LawsonNikki
- Vince GreenSnookie
- Garland WhittKenny
- Elisabeth OasDiggy
- Artel GreatArvel
Recommendations
- 75
Chicago Tribune
Sure, you've seen some of these moves before, but Save the Last Dance triumphantly passes the audition. - 70
Washington Post
This is a spirited, dirty dance between the polished inauthenticity of Hollywood romance-musicals and hip-hop's central tenet: keeping it real. It's an intriguing combination, if nothing else. - 63
Boston Globe
The most traditional of Hollywood romances, in that it's resolutely about nice people with nice problems. - 63
Philadelphia Inquirer
While it flirts with "After School Special"-ness, at least has the courage to address racial and cultural cliches with a degree of honesty. - 60
Dallas Observer
This sweet-tempered retelling of "Romeo and Juliet," which substitutes uplift for tragedy, gives off enough energy and light that the audience wants to believe in it even if society's impacted prejudices continue to say otherwise. - 60
L.A. Weekly
It's pretty good, really. - 50
Salon
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. - 50
Village Voice
The disjointed plotting and afterschool-special dialogue offer scant opportunity for the charismatic leading duo to work up much chemistry.
