Center Stage (2000)

Number Rolled: 47

Movie Name/Year: Center Stage (2000)

Genre: Drama

Length: 115 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Director: Nicholas Hytner

Writer: Carol Heikkinen

Actors: Amanda Schull, Zoe Saldana, Ethan Stiefel, Susan May Pratt, Shakiem Evens, Ilia Kulik, Sascha Radetsky, Peter Gallagher, Donna Murphy, Megan Pepin, Victoria Born, Julie Kent, Debra Monk, Elizabeth Hubbard, Eion Bailey

Jody has wanted to be a perfect dancer for the American Ballet Company since she was a little girl. She’s trained tirelessly and snubbed a traditional college career in order to make it. When she’s finally accepted into their academy, she learns that her poor feet and healthier body tone might cause trouble for her dancing dreams.

I’m excited to get to write about this movie today. “Center Stage” is my all-time favorite dance-plot movie. Knowing that, you might wonder why it scored as low as it has. Let me explain.

The plot and script for this movie are out of this world, and the dancing is some of the best I’ve seen. That’s saying something because I love dance-based shows and movies. I’ve never missed an episode of “So You Think You Can Dance” and my favorite movie (as far back as ten years old) was “A Chorus Line” (1985), which was based on a Broadway play. The majority of the actors were great as well, but would you expect less from people like Zoe Saldana?

The problem is that not all of the actors followed in the footsteps of the (then future) Lieutenant Ohura. For instance, Susan May Pratt is less believable than creationism. Every word out of that actress’s mouth sounds like it’s being read off a cue card in the most obnoxiously over-the-top manner possible. Several of the other smaller actors in the movie make the same unforgivable error.

Aside from that, there’s the feeling that not all the storylines are utilized to the greatest potential. True, though this movie shows a little from several of the characters stories, it’s not meant to be an anthology in any sense of the word. Still, if you’re going to peek into the back-story of a character at the opening of a movie, I expect to learn more about them than I would any of the other supporting characters.

With all its issues, I still consider “Center Stage” one of my favorites.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 43%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 83%

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 3.6/5

Trust-the-Dice Score – 3.5/5

Movie Trailer: