CENTER STAGE (director: Nicholas Hytner; screenwriter: Carol Heikkinen; cinematographer: Geoffrey Simpson; editor: Tariq Anwar; cast: Amanda Schull (Jody), Zoe Saldana (Eva), Susan May Pratt (Maureen), Peter Gallagher (Jonathan Reeves), Donna Murphy (Juliette Simone), Debra Monk (Maureen's manipulative mother), Sascha Radetsky (Charlie), Eion Bailey (Jim), Shakiem Evans (Erik), Ethan Stiefel (Cooper), Christine Dunham (Audition Teacher), Karen Shallo (Mother at Audition), Laura Hicks (Nervous Mother), Elizabeth Hubbard (Joan Miller), Ilia Kulik (Sergei), Julie Kent (Kathleen), 2000)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This is a backstage drama of talented young students trying to be somebody, knowing that only a handful of them will achieve success in their chosen field. They try out for the fictional American Ballet Academy in NYC, hoping to be chosen for a coveted spot in their prestigious workshop program. If successful, three females and three males will be chosen for a dancing spot in the elite American Ballet Company. The story is bogged down with cliches and cardboard characters, while the ballet dancing is the thing of beauty in this film. Most of the dancers are professionals of the highest standards and it shows by their excellent performance. One of them, the film's star, Cooper (Ethan Stiefel), is recognized by most in the field as the best in the world. The framework of the story is the same formula seen in almost every Hollywood sports film, as the art of dancing is only paid lip service to. In fact, if this film wasn't about ballet dancers, it could have been about chorus dancers or football players, and the same trite tale could have been woven. Which shows you how much art mattered. The best reason for seeing the film, is that the dancing is alive and pulsating, choreographed by the likes of Balanchine, Susan Stroman and Christopher Wheeldon, as well as Ivanov and MacMillan. But if you want to see a quality ballet film with a real love story and with the pangs of what goes through an artist, then your best bet is "The Red Shoes (48)."
The story follows a group of these young ballet students, emphasizing their aspirations, their emotional problems, and their athletic stamina to take the rigors of their difficult work. The film is hip to ballet dancers, letting us in on the secret that many of the male dancers are gay, and a straight dancers is much welcomed by the ladies. Many smoke a lot in the hopes of killing their appetites, as weight is something they are all concerned about. And, that they can be easily devasted by criticism of their performance. They also gossip, as well as compete hard, and are jealous of another's success.
All the film characters are made of stock types: the tough teacher who really cares; the unsophisticate who experiences rejection in love and harsh criticism from her teacher, but overcomes these embarrassments; the overeater who gets bounced from the academy; the surly rebel who learns that it is sometimes necessary to conform; and, the bulimic with the pushy mother who confronts her at last. It is was too much effort following all their predictable stories, especially when you know everything is going to be tied up in a nice pink ribbon by the end.
The main story is about Jody (Amanda) and her disappointments and eventual accomplishments, whose parents would rather that she be a freshman in college than dancing in NYC and can't share the joy she has in being accepted to the ABA. Cooper is the star of the company, whose ballerina girlfriend Kathleen married Jonathan (Peter Gallagher), the company's head. On the rebound, he picks up the pretty but insecure Jody and takes advantage of her by taking her to bed and then fluffing her off, but he also gives her a big break and puts her into the new radical ballet he is creating as the guest choreographer for the students' illustrious final exam, a workshop performance before a live audience and a chance for the students to be recognized by all the major professional ballet troupes.
The minor stories were about Sergei (Ilia Kulik-real-life Russian figure skater), a Russian dancer separated by distance from his ballerina girlfriend who out of loneliness picks up a girl in a disco spot by saying he is in the Russian Mafia, because when he tells other girls he meets there that he's in the ballet, they laugh at him. Sascha Radetsky is Charlie, the engaging student dancer from the west, who is the nice boy Jody becomes involved with. Zoe Saldana is Eva Rodriguez, a black Hispanic with an attitude problem, who is a great dancer but must learn obedience. She sasses her teacher (Donna Murphy), comes late to class, chews gum in class, but loves to dance. And then there is Maureen (Pratt), who has been pushed into dance by her overbearing mother, and is considered by the company to have the best technique but no heart in her dancing. She reluctantly meets a college student studying medicine and goes against her mother's wishes by dating him.
This film reminded me a lot of Hollywood's ode to lowbrow culture "Band Wagon," which was much more entertaining.
In Center Stage, there was plenty of dancing at rehearsals and in the two big ballet numbers they put on, before the film comes to its predictable climax for its soap opera stories. The aim of the film was to be entertaining, the art part it dumbed down for mass consumption, though its story could have been worst than it actually was, as it was kept in check from completely taking over the film. What it comes down to, is that the story didn't completely take away from the dance, therefore the film had some mild entertainment value and some sparkle could be detected in the eyes of the students when they were dancing.
REVIEWED ON 6/10/2000 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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