Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Film review

In 'Step Up,' plot steps out

The latest dance movie has plenty of energy, but tired characters and worn cliches make it a tough sell.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published August 10, 2006

You know those footprints pasted on the floor by dance instructors so students know where to move next? Step Up operates in much the same, structured way: one, two, three, flirt; one, two, three, conflict; one, two, three, shake your booty to a lather; rinse off and repeat.

Director-choreographer Anne Fletcher doesn't add anything that audiences haven't already seen in Dirty Dancing, Save the Last Dance and Take the Lead. Dance is still the great equalizer among social classes and race, someone from the wrong side of the tracks is the right guy for a pretty girl, and no problem is so important that it can't be interrupted and probably solved by busting moves. So you think you can write a screenplay?

Duane Adler and Melissa Rosenberg apparently can't without cribbing from movies better than this one. Formula is more important to them than form, and sex appeal trumps both. Step Up certainly has the latter quality, albeit in ways perhaps best understood if R. Kelly means more to viewers than Gene Kelly.

The lead stud, an actor named Channing Tatum, has one primary, scowling expression and a bunch of acrobatic dance moves. Hearing females swooning over him at a screening was at once cute and alarming. If this is what constitutes a heartthrob these days, sensitivity is becoming extinct.

Tatum plays Tyler Gage, a character with negligent foster parents and a chip on his shoulder near the block he calls a head. Tyler is one of those white kids trying too hard to act black, one stereotype wrapped inside another. His travels through Baltimore's bad circles lead to vandalizing a school for the performing arts. Tyler's punishment is working there as a janitor as community service.

Faster than you can say, "Nobody puts Tyler in a mop bucket," his crunk dance moves attract the attention of Nora (Jenna Dewan), a ballet dancer who needs a new partner for the annual Senior Showcase of talent. Tyler doesn't do ballet, but he could think of a few other things to do with Nora. Her boyfriend (Josh Henderson) is obviously no competition, too busy ripping off Nick Lachey's wimp-pop music for class credit to notice.

The only adults around are either bossy (Nora's mom), someone to escape (Tyler's foster dad), or, in the case of the school principal (Rachel Griffiths), too benign for the circumstances. Anyone over 25 should just move aside and let the kids dance. The best scenes in Step Up occur when that happens. Fletcher knows how to convey the strenuous aspects of what her characters do when the music is blaring, but she is not as adept at propelling a plot that really isn't there.

Step Up is a step down from previous dance movies, lacking originality more than energy. Tatum's mumbling swagger and Dewan's fluid movements almost make it worth the price of a ticket - but not quite. It is a movie that should satisfy on home video with an audio system able to handle the concussive bass lines that made theater speakers crackle.

At times Step Up sounds like being stuck at a stoplight next to one of those boom boxes on wheels. That isn't a compliment, but the intended audience will make it one.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com.

Step Up

Grade: C

Director: Anne Fletcher

Cast: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, Mario, Rachel Griffiths, Josh Henderson, Drew Sidora

Screenplay: Duane Adler, Melissa Rosenberg

Rating: PG-13; sensuality, profanity, brief violence, teen mischief

Running time: 98 min.

[Last modified August 8, 2006, 13:34:46]