Reviews

Take the Lead

To Sir, With Tango

By JUSTINE ELIAS | April 5, 2006

2.0 Stars

TAKE THE LEAD: Never underestimate the power of a beat

Liz Friedlander’s pleasant but unsurprising film is a fictionalized Mad Hot Ballroom with rude but redeemable teenagers substituting for the 2005 documentary’s wide-eyed children. Former ballroom-dance champion Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) charms his way into a volunteer teaching gig at a grim New York City high school, where he first bores and then beguiles backtalkers, drugtakers, and would-be gangbangers with his vicious-hot dance-floor moves. “Sex on hardwood!” sighs a white debutante (Lauren Collins) who’s somehow wangled her way into the mix, even though she doesn’t attend school there. The malcontents all fall into step, either out of boredom or from a hunger to master the salsa, the samba, and the rumba. Neither the outcome of a climactic dance contest nor the To Sir with Tango message is ever in doubt: never underestimate youth, the arts, or the power of an insinuating beat.

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