Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) is not actually the central focus of Save the Last Dance, but his relationship with Sara (Julia Stiles) is. She's a young woman carrying the grief of her mother's recent death who arrives in the South Side of Chicago to live with her father Roy (Terry Kinney). She was studying ballet and was actually auditioning for the prestigious Julliard School when her mother died. In Chicago she attends a majority black school which is where she meets Derek, a confident, intelligent young man who has hopes of attending medical school and who resists getting involved with the more aggro side of life in the 'hood. Their relationship develops, he's a fan of hip-hop but encourages her to keep going with her ballet.
This MTV produced film actually transcends its seemingly simplistic storyline largely because of the screenplay by two first-time writers Duane Adler and Cheryl Edwards. They don't shy away from an interracial sexual relationship, or from the implications of the relationship itself on both white society and black. But these points aren't laboured, they're just part of the texture which makes you think you're touching something real here rather than just experiencing another popcorn dance film.
Young Sean Patrick Thomas is dynamic as Derek, he's so good, and Julia Stiles resists making Sara sweet. The director was Thomas Carter who comes from a background of award-winning television and had previously made Swing Kids and Metro and it's to his credit that he resists sentimentality. I know most people will rush to Finding Forrester because of its pedigree but I preferred Save the Last Dance, possibly because I had no expectations.
Comments from David Stratton: Julia Stiles' performance elevates this film about a mixed-race relationship. She's very touching as the girl from a sheltered background who blames herself for her mother's accidental death and who stoically accepts life in the Chicago ghetto with her father – and a very different kind of schooling from what she's used to. Sean Patrick Thomas' Derek is perhaps a bit too good to be true, but their romance is gently and quite beautifully told. Pity it all gets a bit clunky towards the end.
