Take the Lead: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

Liz Friedlander's "Take the Lead" is a fine example of how all the good intentions in the world can't make a poorly conceived movie good, though a good central performance can at least make it bearable.

Based on Dianne Houston's script, the film is loosely based on the life of Pierre Dulaine, the founder of the American Ballroom Theater Company who in 1994 had the vision and the passion to bring ballroom dancing to inner-city kids in New York.

What ensued was more difficult to pull off than dancing the tango to a hip-hop beat (which actually occurs in this movie), but Dulaine's efforts nevertheless were a success, with the program adopted throughout the country by scores of other schools. The idea was that through the discipline and focus required to learn ballroom dancing and do it well, those who never had the opportunity to explore it might realize something deeper about themselves through the process.

It's a subject that was explored just last year in the documentary, "Mad Hot Ballroom," an infinitely better movie that didn't fall victim to the river of cliches and forced situations that nearly drown "Lead." What you felt in "Ballroom" was its inspiration and passion. What you feel in "Lead" is pure formula.

Still, with Antonio Banderas in the lead as Dulaine, at least the formula is backed by conviction. Once again, the actor shows off his impressive range, coming to the role with such charisma and skill, he is almost reason enough to see the movie.

The same can't be said for the uncontainable Alfre Woodard, who plays to the balcony here, overdoing it in each scene. Here, she's Augustine James, the high-school principal who hires Dulaine out of desperation to watch some troubled kids during detention; no other teacher has the time to do it. What Augustine strikes with Dulaine is a deal--Dulaine can teach the students his ballroom dance lessons so long as he agrees to supervise them for the duration of their detention. She thinks he'll last a day--tops--and is every bit as surprised as we are unsurprised when he lasts a good deal longer than that.

Straight off the Hollywood backlot, the kids he chooses to teach are the same old tough bunch of racial stereotypes we've seen dozens of times before in better and worse movies; they'd rather listen to hip-hop than, say, Dinah Washington or Ella Fitzgerald. And yet the moment they watch Dulaine dance the tango with one of his professional students in the film's best, most liberating scene, what they witness is so undeniably sexy and hot, they decide to give it a go.

The rest of the film never lives up to the promise of that scene. As it moves toward its weakly conceived crescendo--a major dance competition the students enter--Friedlander weaves in an out of a blizzard of tiny melodramas that just don't connect. This is her first feature film, and while her inexperience and lack of imagination shows, what can't be overlooked is the performance she gets from Banderas, which is very fine, indeed.

Grade: C-