Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Performances, themes, dance scenes
Cons: More about the other students would have been nice
The Bottom Line:
Ballroom dance movie
Entertaining; great dancing
Plus it's just plain fun
Leading the Dance Revolution
Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) owns his own ballroom
dance studio. It caters to wealthy clients, and is struggling but slowly
becoming successful.
On his way home from an exhibition one night, he witnesses a
student vandalizing the principal's car. The next school day, he shows up, not
to turn the student in, but to volunteer to help by teaching ballroom dance.
The principal (Alfre Woodard) is reluctant to allow the
non-teacher near the kids. This is a rough inner city school, and she doesn't
think he can handle it. But she is desperate for someone to take over the
detention, so she agrees to let him do that and handle the kids however he
wants.
Naturally, the kids don't take well to Pierre 's presence in their lives. They enjoy
their hip hop music and dance and have no use for him and his old music and
formal attire. But Pierre
will not give up that easily and he slowly begins to win them over. But will it
be enough?
Anybody who has seen this kind of movie before already knows
the answer, and this movie provides little new in that regard. Still, even
though we know the ultimate outcome, we can't help but get sucked into the
story along the way.
Most of the kids stay strictly in detention, with only
glimpses into their life outside of school. Two students do get spotlighted,
and their stories of personal tragedy and hard home lives serve to show just
how bad all the students' lives are. That's not to say we don't come to care
for the others. By the end, it's easy to root for all the kids to succeed, not
only in the final dance competition but also in life in general.
As the students begin to warm up to Pierre , the movie quickly becomes fun. While
there is plenty of straight ballroom in the story, the students begin to
interject some of their moves into it as well. These create some fun scenes,
especially the climatic tango.
The movie has some dark moments, especially when dealing
with the realities of living in the inner city. However, before things get too
dark, the story pulls back and has a fun scene that lightens the mood. While in
some movies this might spoil the theme or story, here it works well as it
highlights the themes.
The obvious theme is the one preached by Pierre multiple times through the film.
Learning what you can do gives you confidence in yourself. Pierre uses ballroom dance to do this, but it
just as easily could have been something else. However, there's also the
reminder that all it takes is one person to show interest in helping someone
else to turn a life around.
All this is enhanced by the performances. Antonio Banderas
is strong as the lead. The actors playing the students also do a good job,
giving their characters as much life as the script allows. And it's easy to
tell everyone had fun with the dance numbers.
While the subject is nothing new, Take the Lead keeps the viewer
entertained. The themes help pull this movie out of the cliches and into a
worth while viewing experience.
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