The movie starts off instantly with The main character Sara on a train heading to Chicago. The director plays it smart by telling us her story through flashbacks. It seems she is a very talented ballet dancer who has a fight with her mother because she can't make it to Sara's big audition. The daughter screws up the audition, and while rushing to see Sara, her mother gets killed in a car wreck. We now see Sara who moves to the rough neighborhoods of Chicago with her father Roy. She enrolls in a new school as an outcast and makes friends with the popular girl in school and eventually befriends and falls in love with her brother while learning some new dance moves on the way.
    Julia Stiles is good in this, even if she's not the most good looking girl in the world, she provides alot of depth to the character making her very realistic. Sean Patrick Thomas is also very good as the intelligent love interest. If you don't recognize him, watch "Cruel Intentions". I think most teens and critics found this movie stale for the reason that they could not relate to this. I liked this more than alot of people because I could relate to it. The environments and neighborhood setting shown in this, is the environment I grew up in. I grew up in the Bronx, so the settings in this movie are extremely familiar which made it easier for me to understand. The film is topped by its great dancing and excellent soundtrack from Ice Cube, Shabba Ranks, and Method man featuring Redman. The explosive soundtrack made this a joy to watch. Bravo!

It all was so new, yet seemed so familiar. Tsk, tsk, tsk. The story presented in this is original yet very clichéd. Alot of the events taking place were very predictable at times. I knew there was going to be a snobby girl getting in the way of the main characters' relationship, I knew all the insults were going to happen because she was a white girl. I could go on for hours about this but I choose not to.

A fun, intelligent teen drama with a great soundtrack and an all-around great cast of actors.