Take the Lead
Review by David Bjerre
Genre: GirlieTalk
Keywords:
Inspirational Teacher, Dancing, High School
Did you know that...
In the film Pierre Dulaine says he can speak five languages, all with a Spanish accent. The real Pierre Dulaine is actually son of a French mother and an Irish father.
THE STORY
This is the story of Pierre Dulaine and his struggles to bring ballroom dancing to the troubled kids at a New York public school. Huh? Say what?
Alright, let's take it slowly from the top.
Meet Pierre Dulaine. He's a dance teacher, a ballroom dance teacher no less, and one night he witnesses a young man trashing a car with a golf club, for no apparent reason. Curious as to why this kid was so out of hand, Pierre visits the boy's school. A rundown public school where the only high tech equipment are the metal detectors at the gates. A good portion of these kids will never amount to anything and some of them won't even make it past their teens.
But Pierre is undaunted by this sight. He walks right into the principal's office and offers his help. She is not impressed so she puts him in charge of the detention class, a bunch of kids who - for various reasons - have been sentenced to detention for the rest of the year. The school has all but given up on them, and they know it. Imagine how they greet the well-dressed courteous Pierre when he shows up and tells them they'll have to learn ballroom dancing...
Needless to say he gets the cold shoulder. At first. But the thing about Pierre is that he keeps trying. If something doesn't work he tries something else. He never loses his patience and slowly, but surely, he gets through to the kids. Step by step he teaches them how to dance, but he also teaches them how to treat each other, and he teaches them they can be much more than they ever thought. In short he teaches them how to dream again.
REVIEW
Stop me if you've heard this one before:
A group of inner city kids who have been rejected by everyone around them find solace and strength when an avant-garde teacher arrives at their school. He/she teaches the kids to dance/sing/write/play basketball and gives them hope and a purpose in life, thereby making them better people.
Yes, it's been done before. The "inspirational teacher movie" is almost a genre in itself. On top of that "Take the Lead" is based on a true story. In the context of this glamorous Antonio Banderas vehicle that almost sounds like a joke. Are we really expected to believe that changing your life can be done simply by dancing? Are we expected to believe that there are really people out there who have no ulterior motive? It's ridiculous, insulting and stupid. So why does "Take the Lead" work so damn well?
"Apparently your manners"
Perhaps it's because of Antonio Banderas. He's the perfect embodiment of Pierre Dulaine. Mr. Dulaine is classy. He's got style. He got game. Banderas has always charmed the ladies, he has always oozed sex, even in his bad films, but rarely has he been so dignified. He plays the part with a quiet righteous confidence and what seems to be a genuine desire to change the world. A desire that somehow transcends the character (oh, brother - did I just write that?). To paraphrase: Mr. Dulaine never raises his voice, he never yells at the kids. He doesn't need to. He knows he's right. The character works beautifully as the calm center on the story.
Still, there might be another reason "Take the Lead" works so well. Perhaps it's because of the kids? This ragtag group of detainees is as passionate as they are diverse. Though all the stereotypical characters are present - The fat guy, the "black" white guy, the wallflower - there's enough variety here to keep things interesting.
Take for example the fierce couple LaRhette (Yaya DaCosta) and Rock (Rob Brown). Her mother is a prostitute. His father is in the process of drinking himself to death. Both of them recently lost a brother in a shooting and each of them blames the other's brother for the incident. They clash, not because they're different, but because they're so much alike. They argue, not because they don't understand each other, but because they understand each other so well. That's an unusual and interesting way of clashing two characters.
Another intense group of kids is Ramos (Dante Basco), Danjou (Elijah Kelley) and Sasha (Jenna Dewan). Two boys interested in the same girl is nothing new, but what happens when they have to dance cheek to cheek in front of each other? Or better yet, what happens when they turn their disadvantage into their advantage in the exhilarating final dance-off?
A film like this lives and dies with its young characters. After all, they are the ones whose lives are being changed, so in order for the film to work we have to care about their lives in the first place. Every time they are on the screen they must consume our attention. And these characters do exactly that.
"Take the Lead" also has a strong visual side - it simply looks gorgeous. It has a vibrant and aggressive color palette and it's beautifully shot, especially the dance sequences, which cleverly use camera movements and cutting to accentuate the dance moves. It's hard to shoot dance sequences, but "Take the Lead" makes it look easy, of course the soundtrack helps a great deal. It mixes modern hip-hop and rap rhythms, with classic dance tracks to great effect and perfectly underlines the visuals. As the students grow more confident and start to mix Mr. Dulaine's dance moves with their own, everything falls into place - This is exactly what the music has hinted at all along. It's important for a good dance film to invite the audience to "shake their stuff" alongside the characters, ever though they are confined to a theater seat or a couch and "Take the Lead" does that too.
WRAP-UP
As I've said before the basic premise of "Take the Lead" is completely ridiculous. Nothing in the real world is this simple. So how about we just look at this as a fairy tale? A story that says no dream is impossible. That no one is beyond reach. That everyone deserves a second chance. Isn't that a beautiful idea? Forget it's a fantasy and just let yourself get caught up in the music and the moves. You'll never be sorry.
