Save the Last Dance

For the song, see Save the Last Dance for Me.

Save the Last Dance
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Thomas Carter
Screenplay by	Duane Adler Cheryl Edwards
Story by	Duane Adler
Produced by	Robert W. Cort David Madden
Starring	Julia Stiles Sean Patrick Thomas Kerry Washington Terry Kinney
Cinematography	Robbie Greenberg
Edited by	Peter Berger Jeff Canavan Fritz Feick
Music by	Mark Isham
Production companies	MTV Films Cort/Madden Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	January 12, 2001 (2001-01-12)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$131,706,809

Save the Last Dance is a 2001 American romantic drama dance film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage 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 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.

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 — Choice Actress" for Julia Stiles, "Film — Choice Breakout Performance" for Kerry Washington and "Film — Choice Fight Scene" for Julia Stiles and Bianca Lawson; and being nominated as best "Film — Choice Drama"
• The 2001 Young Hollywood Awards, winning in the category "Standout Performance — Male" for Sean Patrick Thomas
• It was also nominated for the 2002 Black Reel Awards in the category "Theatrical — Best Supporting Actress" for Kerry Washington and the 2002 Golden Reel Awards in the category "Best Sound Editing — 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." 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'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." 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."

Soundtrack

Year	Title	Chart positions		Certifications (sales thresholds)
		U.S.	U.S. R&B
2000	Save the Last Dance Released: December 19, 2000 Label: Hollywood Records	3	2	US: 2x Platinum

See also

• Dirty Dancing, a 1987 film which starred Patrick Swayze, a performer from the Joffrey Ballet
• Dance Flick, a 2009 spoof film which starred Damon Wayans, Jr., and Shoshana Bush

External links

• Save the Last Dance at IMDb
• Save the Last Dance at the TCM Movie Database
• Save the Last Dance at AllMovie
• Save the Last Dance at Rotten Tomatoes
• Save the Last Dance at Box Office Mojo