SAVE THE LAST DANCE

In this hip-hop high-school drama, Julia Stiles (State and Main) plays the alarmingly vanilla Sarah, an aspiring ballerina living in suburbia. Her hopes of attending the Juilliard School are dashed when her mom dies in a car crash and she’s forced to move into the big city (a near-ghetto) with her tenuous father. She’s the only white girl at her new school, and though she can twirl circles around her classmates with her “double-jointed cheerleader shit,” she’s a poky when it comes to R&B. So she persuades Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), the resident hottie, to teach her a move or two. He’s the only other student in the godforsaken place who has a shot at college — if he can stay free from the pillars of bad influence.

Soon enough the two fall for each other, and platitudes of banter about “white girls stealing our men” precipitate. The interracial lessons are hollow and contrived, reducing the issue of “black and white” to a near-cliché. But the fllm works when it’s on the dance floor. Fatima’s choreography, as brought to the screen by director Thomas Carter, is infectious — it’ll make even those of you with two left feet want to get out of your seats and bust a move.

— Tom Meek