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Take the Lead Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for thematic material, language, and some violence) Genre: Comedy, Drama, Musical Theater release: April 07, 2006 by New Line Cinema Directed by: Liz Friedlander Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes Cast: Antonio Banderas (Pierre Dulaine), Alfre Woodard (Augustine James), Rob Brown (Rock), Yaya DaCosta (LaRhette), Lauren Collins (Caitlin), Brandon D. Andrews (Monster), John Ortiz (Mr. Temple) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

The first scenes of Take the Lead do a good job of doing just that—taking the lead and showing us where the movie is going to take us. As the opening credits roll, we see about six different characters getting ready for a dance. Well, two dances, actually—some are going to a fancy-schmancy ballroom affair uptown, and some are going to a school dance at inner-city New York John Drake High School. The difference in their outfits—from a tight denim mini-skirt to a floor-length satiny ballgown, from uber-low-rise jeans to a tux with tails—says a lot about how diverse these people are. But despite the difference in outfits, socio-economic background, spaciousness or cleanliness of home, we see them all carefully fixing their hair, selecting just the right jewelry, even practicing a few moves in the mirror as they go. Dance is the unifying factor. Dance is the universal appeal and the common denominator.

And the man who dances most deftly between the two worlds of posh and underprivileged, is Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas), teaching ballroom, tango, and life lessons as he goes. In one of the opening (and more ridiculous) scenes of the movie, we see Pierre riding his bicycle home from that evening's ballroom competition, still decked out in his tails, which miraculous don't get caught in his bicycle spokes (he's just that smooth). On his way, he witnesses a couple of high school students vandalizing a car with a golf club. Seemingly fearless, Pierre schwins on up to the scene and confronts the one with the club, taking the name badge hanging from the car's rearview mirror before he goes.

Markus T. Paulk as Eddie and Antonio Banderas as Pierre

When he returns the badge to its owner at John Drake High School the next morning—it belongs to the principal who'd wronged the misunderstood vandal—he's confronted with a stereotypical movie high school scene: uncaring cops working security, students sporting tons of 'tude, and teachers one step shy of throwing up their hands in frustration and walking away from it all. Principal James (Alfre Woodard) is jaded and tenacious and caring in a tough, bulldog-like way (she keeps pictures of slain students on her wall). She's also understandably dubious when be-suited Mr. Dulaine returns her badge, fails to name names, and says he wants to help by teaching the students to dance. At her wit's end on who to get to cover after-school detention duty, she takes him up on his offer, saying she bets five bucks he won't return for day two of babysitting the school's worst underachievers and misbehavers.

Pierre sets to work to revolutionize the "rejects" by teaching them ballroom, to which the students only relent to get him to turn off his "awful and boring" old-school tunes. One of the students is the vandal with the golf club, "Rock" (Rob Brown), a misunderstood kid from a dysfunctional family who just lost his brother in a gang incident. Another student is LaRhette (Yaya DaCosta), a hard-working young girl who looks after her three younger siblings while her mother's had to turn tricks since her father abandoned the family several years ago. The interactions and progression of these two students is some of the best material in the flick—mainly because we see the process of them growing to trust Dulaine, each other, and themselves. Other parts of the movie would have been served well with a bit more of this peek at the progression. All the students learn basic ballroom steps and form too quickly. Dulaine handles the students' attitude and behavior issues too easily. We needed a bit more of the struggle with these difficult tasks before seeing success.

The rest of the students in detention dance class are a mish-mash of dysfunction, attitude, underachievement, and mistrust of adults. Ever suave and suited Dulaine tells them how ballroom is a dance of kings and warriors, a dance of strength, integrity, and love. But he doesn't fully convince the students of the merits of dance until he invites a beautiful young blonde student from his day-job dance studio to dance a steamy tango with him for the students one afternoon. From then on, the students are willing (albeit horny) putty in his hands.

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