Product Details

• Actors: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro Starr, Terry Kinney
• Directors: Thomas Carter
• Writers: Cheryl Edwards, Duane Adler
• Producers: David Madden, Douglas Curtis, Marie Cantin, Robert W. Cort, Scarlett Lacey
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: November 6, 2001
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (251 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005NW1U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,147 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Save the Last Dance enjoyed a profitable release in early 2001, with box-office earnings that exceeded anyone's expectations. Its performance illustrates the staying power of a formulaic movie that avoids the pitfalls and clichés that would otherwise render it forgettable. Since there's nothing new here, you'll appreciate the original quirks in a character-based plot that's just around the corner from Flashdance, and just as familiar. Sara (Julia Stiles) gave up a promising ballet career when her mother was killed while rushing to attend her daughter's crucial audition to Juilliard; Sara blames herself for the accident, and at her new, mostly African American high school in Chicago, she's uncertain of her future.

Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) has no such doubts; his own future is bright, and his attraction to Sara is immediate; they connect (predictably), and Sara's dormant funk emerges, with Derek's coaching, as she learns hip-hop dancing in a local club. Obligatory subplots are equally routine: Derek's sister (Kerry Washington) is a single mom struggling with her child's absentee father; Derek's best friend (Fredro Starr) feels trapped in his gangsta lifestyle; and Sara's once-estranged father (Terry Kinney) is doing his best to correct past mistakes. Within the confines of this standard follow-your-dream drama, director Thomas Carter capitalizes on a script that allows these characters to be real, intelligent, and thoughtful about their lives and their futures. It's obvious that Stiles's dancing was intercut with that of a professional double, but that illusion hardly matters when the rest of the movie's so earnestly positive and genuine. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

A hip-hop fairy tale. Julia Stiles, the reigning queen of teen movies, plays Sara, a ballet dancer and high-school senior who moves to inner-city Chicago after her mother dies in a car crash. There, she mixes with her new classmates and learns to use "slammin' " as an adjective. Her love interest is Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), a Georgetown-bound scholar who performs his own delicate dance: he's ambitious, yet he's trying to maintain his homeboy status. The movie's best scenes are its intimate tutorials-Derek teaches Sara how to sit, stand, and walk the way black people do. Eventually, they kiss, and the only people who really freak out are the old white ones. The dancing is surprisingly sedate; less so are Stiles's outfits. It may be a long time before she lives down the Princess Leia hair style she sports in the final scenes. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM..., July 27, 2002

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Save the Last Dance

This is a well acted, somewhat sanitized and idealized story of a talented teeage girl who, on the cusp of achieving her dream, loses everything, only to find it again in a way no one would have predicted. It is a story about attaining one's dreams and the process by which they may become a reality. This is a well acted, though predictable, coming of age tale that can be enjoyed by young and old alike.

Here, the talented Julia Stiles plays the role of Sara, a teenager who happens to be a talented ballet dancer. Auditioning for the famous Julliard School, while angry at her single parent mother for being late to her audition, she fumbles her audition. She finishes, only to discover that her mother, in her haste to make Sara's audition, died in a tragic car accident on her way. Blaming herself for her mother's death, Sara gives up ballet.

Her pleasant life suddenly snatched from her, Sara is forced to go live with her estranged dad, Roy, wonderfully acted by Terry Tinney. A down and out jazz musician who lives on Chicago's tough south side, Roy does the best he can to make up for lost time. Sara, seemingly undaunted by her seamy new surroundings, enters a predominantly black high school, where she is befriended by fellow student, Chanelle, a single mom with a hunky, intelligent brother, Derek, played by Sean Patrick Thomas, who is well cast in the role. Bound for Georgetown University, Derek hopes to one day become a doctor.

Through her blossoming relationship with Derek, Sara begins to dance again. It is through his encouragement and nurturing that she regains the confidence to follow her dream and audition once again for Julliard. It is also through his commitment to Sara that Derek finds the courage to tell his gangsta wanna be friend that he wants no further involvement in his friend's nefarious activities, before it is too late for him.

Sara's audition is a show stopping dance routine that is the icing on this enjoyable, coming of age film. It is a testament to hope and to the power of love.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will You Want To "Save the Last Dance", June 8, 2001

By 

Kayla (Meridian, MS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Save the Last Dance (DVD)

Save The Last Dance is quite a bit smarter, and more entertaining, than the majority of what some people call teenybopper flicks. Much of this is due to the performances of Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas. I know Thomas only from a small role in Cruel Intentions (one of my guilty pleasures from 1999), but Stiles always seems to bring an added depth to her movies, from 10 Things I Hate About You to Hamlet. This movie's no different. She's the protagonist, the heart and soul of the movie, and she doesn't disappoint.

Stiles is Sarah Johnson, a suburban teen whose life is torn apart when her mother is killed in a car accident en route to her daughter's ballet recital. Sent to live with her estranged father Roy (Terry Kinney), a down-on-his-luck jazz musician, she is forced to adapt to her new environment -- inner city Chicago. There she enrolls in a school in which she is pretty much the only color. She makes friends with Chenille Reynolds (Kerry Washington), a single mother, and her brother Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), a smart kid who is at a crossroads in life. She also makes enemies with Nikki (Bianca Lawson), who wants Derek all to herself, and Malakai (Fredro Starr), Derek's best friend and convicted criminal, who's swiftly descending into a life of crime. Needless to say, a relationship develops between Sarah and Derek, and they help each other: he gets her involved in dance again, and she opens his mind to the possibilities of life outside the hood.

Save The Last Dance is more realistic than many of its counterparts. The high school looks like a real high school. The dance club is more like a dance club; ie, some people dance, some don't, and nobody breaks out into a quasi-Busby Berkeley style group dance number. And the actors make their characters seem like real people. Director Thomas Carter and screenwriters Duane Adler and Cheryl Edwards bring up a number of issues that make the movie more than just another teen flick. If you're a romantic, the ending will leave you with a huge smile on your face, and perhaps even choke you up. It's definitely worth taking a look at.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dynamic Dance Duo, September 29, 2002

By 

"janalee2001" (RUSSELLVILLE, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Save the Last Dance (Special Edition) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Save the Last Dance (2001), starring Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas, is more than your average teen movie. This romantic drama deals with grief, guilt, interracial relationships, violence, and inner conflicts. While most romantic dramas are extremely predictable, Director Thomas Carter II does a wonderful job with plot twists.
The movie begins with Sara Johnson (Julia Stiles) on a train headed for Chicago to live with her estranged father, Roy (Terry Kinney). Sara begins to have flash backs on the train, and soon we find out that Sara was an aspiring ballet dancer, and while auditioning for the Julliard School of Dance, her mother was killed in a tragic car accident on her way to the audition. Grief and guilt cause Sara to hang up her ballerina shoes.
Sara arrives in Chicago and is forced to live a completely different life style than she is accustomed to. She attends a predominantly African American high school on Chicago's rough South Side. In her first English class, she gets into a debate with Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), and immediately dislikes him because of his attitude. Sara feels out of place until she befriends Chenille (Kerry Washington), a single teenage mother. It turns out that Derek is Chenille's brother, which is totally unexpected by Sara and the viewing audience.
Sara quickly adjusts to living in an African American culture with the help of her new friends. Sara begins to take an interest in Derek when he asks her to dance at a popular hip hop club. As Derek begins to coach her on hip hop dancing, an interracial relationship begins, and so do the social problems.
Dancing is the key to this movie because that is how most of the relationships develop. Most of the conflicts take place during the dancing scenes as well.
Overall, I rated this film a four star rating. I was expecting another teen movie, and instead I got so much more out of it. If you are interested in a serious drama that touches on a plethora of topics this film is worth viewing.