Take the Lead (PG-13, 2006)

In TAKE THE LEAD, New York ballroom dancing teacher Pierre (Antonio Banderas) begins teaching a group of troubled high school students. He's first stymied, then embraced by the flinty-then-warm principal (Alfre Woodard). Though his students -- assigned to detention hall for various infractions -- resist his initial efforts to "express themselves" through dance (and especially, disdain his romantic oldies music), they do come to appreciate his dedication, and the fact that he brings in one of his upscale, white, and very snobby students, Morgan (Katya Virshilas), to show the proper execution of the tango. The boys' eyes predictably pop ("It's like sex on hardwood!") and the girls appreciate Morgan's deft athleticism. Pierre and his toughest student, Rock (Rob Brown), test one another, learn to trust one another, and come up with a mutually respectful relationship by film's end.

Well-meaning and energetic, Liz Friedlander's fiction film skews older than last year's documentary Mad Hot Ballroom (though both are inspired by the same NYC program), and features more acrobatic camerawork and slicker editing. This means the movie grants the kids an inevitable endpoint: an entertaining dance competition where they combine hip-hop and ballroom strategies.

Yet while Rock is "developed" in relation to several characters, most of the students never get out from under their initial stereotypes. The film alludes to the students' complex lives and "issues" but they're resolved in the fiction more simplistically than are the younger kids' dilemmas in the documentary. And the Michelle Pfeiffer plot is corny. Even the diligent, compassionate widower Pierre gets a girlfriend by the end.

Studio: New Line
Director: Liz Friedlander
Cast: Alfre Woodard, Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown
Genre: Drama
Run time: 117 minutes
Theatrical release: April 7, 2006
DVD release: August 29, 2006
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: thematic material, language and some violence