Sara Johnson, a promising dancer in high school in suburban Chicago, hopes to be admitted to study at Juilliard School and invites her mother to attend the audition. She fails the audition and soon learns that her mother was killed in a car accident in her haste to get to the audition. Sara is wracked by guilt and gives up on ballet. She moves in with her estranged father, Roy, and transfers to an inner-city school on the south side of Chicago. Her father is a jazz musician who plays the trumpet and usually plays in nightclubs. At her new school, Sara is one of a handful of white students but quickly befriends Chenille, a single teen mother who is having relationship problems with an ex-boyfriend named Kenny. Chenille invites Sara to a dance club called STEPPS, where she has her first experience of dancing to hip hop rhythms. At STEPPS, Sara dances with Derek, Chenille's brother and a student with dreams of attending Georgetown University and ultimately becoming a pediatrician. He decides to help Sara develop her dancing skills by incorporating more hip hop into her style. Derek takes a reluctant Sara to the Joffrey Ballet and, afterwards, Sara confides in him about her mother and her dreams. Later, they return to the club and amaze others with their dancing. Having achieved his dream of being accepted at Georgetown University, Derek convinces her to follow her dreams of Juilliard. Eventually, Sara and Derek begin a relationship. At school, Nikki, Derek's jealous ex-girlfriend, picks a fight with Sara. Chenille tells Sara that she didn't approve of the fight but can understand the bitterness since Sara, a white girl, is seen as “stealing” one of the decent black men in the school. Because of this conversation, Sara and Chenille's friendship becomes strained, and Sara decides to break up with Derek. Meanwhile, Derek deals with his friend Malakai, who is heavily into the gang lifestyle that Derek is trying to leave. Derek accepts Malakai's ask for help in executing a "drive-by" at the same time as Sara's audition. Sara's father has a heart-to-heart talk with her and encourages her to audition for Juilliard again. After hearing what Chenille said to Sara, Derek confronts his sister for what she said, as well as explaining his true reasons for dumping Nikki. He is very disappointed in Chenille for hurting Sara. Remorseful for her actions, Chenille admits what she did was wrong and apologizes. It's there Derek learns from her how much the break up was hurting Sara the most since she loves him. Chenille also admitted she felt resentment for how Kenny had been treating her in not helping her raise their son and choosing to date Nikki on the sly. She unintentionally took it out on Sara, since she had been jealous of her and Derek's relationship. Chenille encourages him to be with Sara, admitting that she knew Sara loves him with her heart. She also warns Derek not to follow Malakai knowing he may face losing his chance to attend Georgetown and his future if he is arrested. Derek then makes an important decision, bailing on Malakai to attend Sara's audition. He arrives at a crucial point of her performance to offer her encouragement and moral support. After her audition, Sara is accepted and she rekindles her relationship with Derek. Meanwhile, the drive-by becomes botched and Malakai is arrested. The film closes as Sara, Derek, Chenille, and their friends meet at STEPPS to celebrate Sara's successful audition.
The film debuted at number 1 at the North American box office making $27.5 million in its opening weekend. Though the film had a 44% decline in earnings the following weekend, it was still enough to keep the film at the top spot for another week. It grossed $91,057,006 in the US alone and $131.7 million worldwide. Save the Last Dance won several awards, most notably:
The 2001 MTV Movie Awards, winning in the category "Best Kiss" for Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas, who also won "Breakthrough Male Performance"; and being nominated for "Best Female Performance" for Julia Stiles and "Best Dance Sequence" for a scene in the hip hop club
The 2001 Teen Choice Awards, winning in the categories "Choice Movie: Actress" for Julia Stiles, "Choice Movie: Breakout Star" for Kerry Washington and "Choice Movie: Fight Scene" for Julia Stiles and Bianca Lawson; and being nominated for "Choice Movie: Drama"
The 2001 Young Hollywood Awards, winning in the category "Standout Performance — Male" for Sean Patrick Thomas
It was also nominated for the 2002 Black Reel Awards in the category "Theatrical — Best Supporting Actress" for Kerry Washington and the 2002 Golden Reel Awards in the category "Best Sound Editing — Music, Musical Feature Film" for the music editor Michael T. Ryan.
, the film holds a 52% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 98 reviews with an average rating of 5.47/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "This teen romance flick feels like a predictable rehashing of other movies." Some of the positive reviews are measured in their enthusiasm, with remarks such as, "Look elsewhere for reality or good drama. Look here, however, if you're in the mood for a good heaping of fantasy and some fun"; "a decent, well-put-together romantic drama to hold hands to on the weekend"; and "A sometimes predictable, but mostly enjoyable tale." Salon's reviewer called the film "a bad, friendly, enjoyable movie," observing that "for all its dumb clichés it offers the basic appeal of teen movies: the pleasure of watching kids be kids, acting as they do among themselves instead of how parents and teachers expect them to act." Roger Ebert rated it three stars out of four:
Soundtrack
The film’s soundtrack was released on December 19, 2000 through Hollywood Records and consisted of hip hop and R&B music. The soundtrack was a huge success, and made it to several Billboard charts. It peaked at 3 on the Billboard 200, 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, 6 on the Top Soundtracks, 3 on the Top Internet Albums and 2 on the Canadian Albums Chart, and featured two charting singles "Crazy" and "You". Save the Last Dance went both gold and platinum on January 29, 2001 and was certified 2x multi-platinum on May 20, 2002. The Soundtrack won the American Music Award for best Soundtrack in 2002. Allmusic rated the soundtrack three out of five stars. RapReviews rated it three and a half out of ten.
