January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Movie Review / Take the Lead
Nice looking stars, but the story’s a bit clumsy on its feet
Unfortunately, he doesn’t even try to be, though he’s playing a guy so smitten by ballroom dancing that he believes he can use it to transform a bunch of underprivileged kids. The film is based on the true story of Pierre Dulaine, a professional dancer who started a ballroom-dance programme in New York City elementary schools that serves thousands of kids. Take the Lead puts Banderas’s Dulaine in a predominantly African American high school, where raging hormones battle with drugs, crime and poverty for control of the students’ lives.
The film might appeal to this age group, for it tries to present a realistic view of the brutal lives and few options of inner-city teens. The young cast members are full of attitude and heart. But the film is long on flashy dance sequences, short on depth, character and craft. There are a few good scenes, but the whole thing feels too phony .
Banderas’ character is an odd bird. At the start, he seems to exist in an alternate universe, teaching dance to cotillion-bound kids at his tony studio and performing in grand ballrooms. He rides a bike in his tuxedo, pedalling primly through the streets like Mary Poppins.
After riding past a car vandal in action, he winds up at a run-down, metal-detector-outfitted school deep in the heart of Real Life. A charismatic Alfre Woodard is the tough-talking principal, though she’s too glamorously scarf-swathed and designer-dressed for the role; she looks as if she ought to be lunching at Le Cirque instead of clearing hallways in the ghetto. Her car was the one that got trashed, and one of her students did it. When Banderas offers to help by teaching the kids ballroom dancing, she quickly sizes him up as a sucker and throws him to the wolves — that is, a group of troublemakers with permanent after-school detention.
Yet, after the duo win the kids over with a steamy tango display, which leaves everyone in the room in a sweat, Banderas’ Dulaine fashions his crew into a top-flight dance force. Especially after he whips up a fun hybrid of their hip-hop moves set to ballroom counts and accompanied by a remix of Gershwin songs and breakbeats.
They look so good, he springs for their entry fees to a citywide dance competition. With eyes on the $5,000 grand prize, these former slackers are suddenly paying attention. Of course, it’s no easy road to the contest...
Meanwhile, for some confounding reason, the school’s PTA has decided to yank Dulaine and his dancing lessons, and he’s called before the principal and a bunch of parents, where he’s told to take his fancy-schmancy steps and beat it. Dulaine knows how to lead and get the ladies to follow, however; he simply takes the principal in his arms and purrs, “How ‘bout we just move?” Their ensuing slow-dance becomes a perfect pulpit.
Worth it?
While he’s dancing, he asks the parents: If your 16-year-old daughter gets used to being handled like this by a man, “how likely is she to let some idiot knock her up?” Picture your teen-age son learning respect for women through ballroom dancing, he tells them. His lessons may seem frivolous, but they teach kids respect, teamwork and dignity.
This scene is the heart of the movie, a direct address to parents about what’s missing from their kids’ education, and the way good old-fashioned ballroom dancing can play a powerful role.
The point is nicely made, with Banderas doing more showing than telling, and it’s almost worth wading through the other clumsy scenes and stretched scenarios to get to.[[In-content Ad]]
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