'Take the Lead' fails to deliver on story

Two documentaries from 2005 did a better job telling similar stories.
By CHRIS HEWITT
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
The credits for "Take the Lead" say it was "inspired by a true story," but it was really inspired by "Dangerous Minds," "The Blackboard Jungle," "Mad Hot Ballroom" and dozens of other inspirational teacher/student movies.
This one features Antonio Banderas as a ballroom dance instructor in New York who uses the tango and waltz to reach out to a bunch of hip-hop-loving juvies because teachers in the movies never connect to students with, you know, math or social studies. Rest assured that "Take the Lead" is absolutely nothing like every other movie in which a teacher is initially rejected by his students, then has a breakthrough, then faces a setback, then leads them to the championship.
OK, it is exactly like every one of those movies, except with an additional handicap. "Take the Lead" comes on the heels of two 2005 documentaries that told similar stories better: "Rize," the energetic film about krumping, and "Mad Hot Ballroom," the charmer about a dance program for fifth-graders in New York. Both movies get across the idea "Take the Lead" introduces in its best scene: that the arts are a great way to teach trust, respect, confidence and teamwork.
What it's like
Elsewhere, though, "Take the Lead," with its awkward transitions and abrupt blackouts, is the cinematic equivalent of a high school paper written in study hall the hour before it's due. Most of the time, it ignores the lives of the students, which would be fine if the movie wanted to focus instead on their joy as they discover dance. But then it occasionally pretends it cares about the kids in scenes that are half-hearted at best and offensively glib at worst. I mean, has learning to fox trot ever helped anyone cope with a hooker mom who turns tricks in the next room?
The movie's problems come to a head at the big ballroom competition. With their suggestion that it's possible to become a cha-cha champ in a few weeks, these scenes are phony to begin with, and then they blast off into the fakeosphere.