Take the Lead is equal parts To Sir with Love and Fame and it’s a surprisingly effective mix.
Antonio Banderas is Pierre Dulaine, an acclaimed international dance instructor who decides to teach a group of inner-city school kids how to ballroom dance.
These are not just any rebellious teenagers, but a group of kids who spend most of their school days in detention.
The detention room is in the far end of the school basement in a room fittingly known as the dungeon.
Anyone who remembers what Sidney Poitier accomplished in To Sir With Love with kids others had written off knows Dulaine is going to inspire this new generation of misfits and rejects.
How he does it with ballroom dancing is what makes Take the Lead so much fun.
You take one look at the motley crew in the detention room and you swear they’ll never be able to tango, waltz or fox trot with grace and ease.
Liz Friedlander makes her feature film debut with Take the Lead, bringing to it her years of training on music videos.
She knows how to capture movement, so the dance sequences are electric.
There’s a sultry hip hop tango in the finale that is genuinely steamy.
Take the Lead may be far from original but treads familiar ground in a fun, uplifting and sexy way.
(This film is rated PG)
