New York dance coach Pierre Dolan is an ideal dance coach. One day, Pierre saw a black teenager sabotaging the car of a public school principal. The next day he decided to volunteer to teach students dance to give respect, dignity, self-confidence and teamwork. These are the basic goals through which Pierre tries to teach young people to dance. After a while, former director Augustine James tries to order the troublemakers in custody to face up and expect Pierre to abandon his intentions to teach young people to dance. Pierre fights against bias and ignorance on the part of students, parents and others in order to teach them to dance and win the competition.
While we may be able to pretty much guess everything that's going to happen in Take the Lead, its considerable charm lies in the way it fulfills, rather than bucks, our expectations.
Think of it as the fictionalized version of last year's engaging documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, with teen dancers and sexier moves. It is also more formulaic and clichéd, thanks to the predictable plot and theme.
Take the Lead is pure entertainment, if only for the endless amusement of watching Banderas spread the gospel of ballroom like he was born wearing a tuxedo.
A feel-good story using music and dance to guide problem kids onto the straight and narrow.....entertaining, although not the showstopper we might hope for
