TAKE THE LEAD
Put on your dancing shoes: A clash of cultures is about to mesh in New York City
Popcorn Reel.com Film Review: “Take The Lead”
By Omar P.L. Moore/April 16,
2006
Small steps: Marcus T. Palk and Antonio
Banderas cross the cultural divide; Yaya DaCosta and Rob Brown two-step in "Take
The Lead", directed by Liz Friedlander.
Photos: New Line Cinema
"Take The Lead" is a vibrant, richly entertaining film from Liz
Friedlander, whose direction is both perceptive and energetic. Loosely
based on the true story of ballroom dancing teaching legend Pierre Dulaine, the
film looks at the imprint and effect of Dulaine's teaching-by-dancing method to
troubled inner-city students in detention at a rough high school in the New York
City borough of The Bronx.
Antonio Banderas balances his charm and sex appeal with restraint in the
portrayal of Dulaine, who volunteers to teach unruly high school students who
are sent to detention. The school's principal, a bitterly cynical but
fair-minded character played by the great Alfre Woodard, all but laughs him out
of her office when he first approaches her. Some faculty members are
alternatively seduced by his courteous ways while others are resentful and
highly skeptical of his teaching style. And predictably the detention
students getting a taste of Dulaine's methods are initially none-too-thrilled.
The cliches are all in place for this film to scream "Lean on Me", "Dangerous
Minds", "Stand and Deliver", "Save the Last Dance", "To, Sir With Love", or any
number of films featuring a fish-out-of-water teacher coming in to rescue a
school from own its bad apples, apples that a teacher would not dare take from
his or her pet.
None of the films mentioned above are necessarily bad ones, but they are
indicative of the types of Hollywood predictability adopted in heavy doses in
this genre type. For sure, "Take The Lead" does what every film does:
borrow a little from previous efforts, but what is refreshing is that Ms.
Friedlander resists what is typically viewed as the white paternalism of a
renegade teacher imparting cure-all-medicine to black and Hispanic
students-syndrome that some of the films above contain. On the contrary,
"Take The Lead" is at its very best when Mr. Banderas steps back or is absent
from the screen and allows the high schoolers to do their thing on their own and
take the initiative, which is quintessentially what the title of the film is all
about. If a teacher is to teach, then what is it all for if an audience
does not get to see the fruits of the teacher's (and the students') labors?
There are numerous scenes where the moviegoer gets to see whether the students
have learned their lesson and the results for the most part, are pleasing.
Yet trouble afflicts several of the detention students, and we see Rock (played
by Rob Brown) waver between the streets and the family that gives him comfort,
and the dysfunctional wreckage that plagues his own natural family, which was
rocked by tragedy, at home. As a side note, Mr. Brown played an
exceptionally bright student in Gus Van Sant's "Finding Forrester", and here he
is a 180-degree opposite from that clean-cut, sharp-eyed, quick-witted in the
2000 film which starred Sean Connery. Here, Mr. Brown is the ultimate bad
boy, and his scenes with Mr. Banderas play with both a calculated tension and a
freedom that make their interactions palpable and authentic. There is a
tremendous shot of the two of them at the end of a scene when Dulaine talks to
Rock about the tough knocks of life. In the shot that ends the encounter
we see a perfect juxtaposition of their two worlds: Dulaine on the street level
and Rock in the basement basketball court, trying to escape the world's low
expectations of him.
There are class issues that are also inescapable here: the ballroom dancing
school that Dulaine created with his teaching partner (played by Anna Dimitrie
Melamed) is full of the creme-de-la-creme of the rich, elite talent of the
ballroom dancing world, privileged to the nth degree. There is tension
here between rich and poor, and it is frequently displayed. Other
disadvantaged students such as Lahrette (Yaya DaCosta) are in grave trouble at
times, and there is a powerful camera movement that perfectly captures
Lahrette's distress in one scene. Besides being remarkably visceral and
immediate in its power, this camera movement depicts the claustrophobia of fear.
"Take The Lead" has its predictable moments, but in some regards it is a unique
film that catches you by surprise, even if it can be forgiven for feeling like
two different movies. Still, the music, the choreography, the sexy
ballroom dance moves, the melding of both the hip-hop and ballroom music worlds,
the acting, great humor among the students and the charisma of Mr. Banderas, all
make "Take The Lead" far more than just a worthwhile film.
Copyright 2006. Popcornreel.com.
All Rights Reserved.