accessAtlanta

'Step Up': Dance numbers alone make this film worth it

Since every generation deserves a high-energy dance fable about a high school of the arts, and since it has been 26 years since Fame, we were probably overdue for a movie like Step Up.

As long as you do not insist on plausibility and can accept a little melodrama, there is much to like in this tale of a Baltimore arts school full of highly motivated kids yearning to make their mark on the music world, and most notably dance.

Buena Vista Pictures 'Step Up' B The verdict: Terrific kinetic dance numbers in this latest implausible school-of-the-arts romance and melodrama. Director: Anne Fletcher Starring: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, Rachel Griffiths, Mario, Drew Sidora Run time: 98 minutes Release date: August 11, 2006 Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, brief violence and innuendo. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

OK, you are also going to have to suffer a few clichés, since the central story concerns an affluent, talented dancer named Nora (Jenna Dewan) who meets a have-not called Tyler (Channing Tatum), sentenced to 200 hours of community service at her school for breaking in and vandalizing the place. When her partner in the all-important senior showcase dance pulls a muscle, Nora taps Tyler to fill in. To no one's surprise, they rub off on each other, as well as rub against each other and fall in love.

It is easy to dismiss the movie's faults when the musical numbers are so kinetically appealing and there is so much new talent on display, including director-choreographer Anne Fletcher. Having supplied steps for such non-dance films as Ice Princess and The Pacifier, she not only comes to us with several major presentational numbers here, but makes the transition to the filmmaker's seat with assurance and finesse.

If she is less successful with the non-musical scenes, that is partly the fault of screenwriters Duane Adler (Save the Last Dance) and Melissa Rosenberg (TV's The O.C.). In addition to the by-the-numbers romance, they hand her a mawkish subplot about urban violence that even a more experienced director could not make persuasive.

Dewan, previously featured in the far more synthetic dance film Take the Lead, has a charismatic, radiant quality that the camera captures well. She dances beautifully, but seems unlikely to be typecast only in musicals. Tatum moves well for a guy of his size and has the hokier acting assignment — torn between his character's new love of dance and pressure from his buds in the 'hood. That he has us suspending our skepticism even momentarily is no small feat.

A too-sketchy secondary romance between Drew Sidora as Nora's sidekick and rhythm-and-blues star Mario as a student composer looks to have lost something in the editing. And Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) does what she can with the thin role of the school's kindly, but disapproving director.

Fortunately, Step Up has a story line with plenty of opportunities for dance, and when those musical numbers are on, all is well with the movie. If only it had been conceived as a full-blown musical with songs that could heighten matters, the film might have had a stronger emotional hook.

But this is one of those tales where the climactic dance gets changed abruptly with the last-minute arrival of a lead character, so our job is to go along with it all and not ask too many questions.