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| Take the lead |
| Written by Administrator | |
| Sunday, 16 April 2006 | |
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Film review of the latest dancing film...
Cert 12A, 117mins Rating: 2/5
Antonio Banderas leads us into cinematic hell in a club-footed drama about a dance teacher who transforms the lives of his students. It’s been 19 years since Robin Williams got his pupils to stand on their desks in Dead Poets Society. Enough time, you’d think, to get the inspirational-teacher drama right. But there’s almost nothing right about Take The Lead, a movie that takes every genre cliché and dumps a skipful of sugar on it. You can practically feel your teeth fizzing. Inspired by a true story – which means most of it’s made up – Banderas plays ballroom dance coach Pierre Dulaine who decides to volunteer his services at a rough New York school. But the young toughs in his charge prefer rap to rumba and give the idealistic Pierre a rough ride. Guess what happens next? After the standard ‘dancing’s for sissies’ face-off, he convinces them that the patience and self-discipline required to waltz will change their lives. Then, before you can say Mr Holland’s Opus, Coach Carter or The Chorus, our unlikely heroes are in with a shot at a local dance contest. It’s here, in the last half hour, that Take The Lead doesn’t so much trip on its tails as fall flat on its arse. I don’t want to give too much away but I’m thinking of a final scene where a bunch of starch-collared dancing stiffs start wigging out to a fusion of hip hop and the waltz. No, really. It’s meant to be feelgood but is so unspeakably embarrassing, it deserves a new word of its very own. Feelsick, perhaps. With TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Strictly Dance Fever pulling in the punters, you could say it was a shrewd move to make a film like Take The Lead. On the other hand, you could call it a cheap cash-in that’s been cut and pasted from Dangerous Minds and Music Of The Heart. The only good thing about this desperately tired movie is the cast. Banderas (The Mask Of Zorro, Shrek 2) is just about OK, but it’s his younger co-stars who sparkle. What a pity they’re forced to play such a standard, off-the rack group of misunderstood teens with the usual problems and bad atti-toods. If you haven’t got the message by now, let’s put it like this, Take The Lead will have your toes curling with embarrassment rather than tapping under your seat. D-minus. THE REEL LOWDOWN BEST QUOTE: “You really made me believe magic could happen anywhere.” Yes, I know, but it’s the best thing in it. BEST BIT: Decent young cast. WORST BIT: An excruciating dance contest at the end. IF YOU LIKED... Dangerous Minds, Music Of The Heart... YOU’LL LIKE THIS. Source |
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