Banderas’ acting saves formulaic ‘Take the Lead’

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In theaters

TAKE THE LEAD, directed by Liz Friedlander, written by Dianne Houston, 117 minutes, rated PG-13.

Liz Friedlander’s “Take the Lead” is a fine example of how all the good intentions in the world can’t make a poorly conceived movie good, though a good central performance can at least make it bearable.

Based on Dianne Houston’s script, the film loosely follows the life of Pierre Dulaine, the founder of the American Ballroom Theater Company, who, in 1994, had the vision and passion to bring ballroom dancing to inner-city kids in New York.

What ensued was more difficult to pull off than dancing the tango to a hip-hop beat (which actually occurs in this movie), but Dulaine’s efforts nevertheless were a success, with the program adopted throughout the country by scores of other schools. The idea was that through the discipline and focus required to learn ballroom dancing and do it well, those who never had the opportunity to explore it might realize something deeper about themselves through the process.

It’s a subject that was explored just last year in the documentary, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” an infinitely better movie that didn’t fall victim to the river of cliches and forced situations that nearly drown “Lead.” What you felt in “Ballroom” was its inspiration and passion. What you feel in “Lead” is pure formula.

Still, with Antonio Banderas in the lead as Dulaine, at least the formula is backed by conviction. Once again, the actor shows off his impressive range, coming to the role with such charisma and skill, he is almost reason enough to see the movie.

The same can’t be said for the uncontainable Alfre Woodard, who plays to the balcony here, overdoing it in each scene. Here, she’s Augustine James, the high-school principal who hires Dulaine out of desperation to watch some troubled kids during detention; no other teacher has the time to do it. What Augustine strikes with Dulaine is a deal – Dulaine can teach the students his ballroom dance lessons so long as he agrees to supervise them for the duration of their detention. She thinks he’ll last a day – tops – and is every bit as surprised as we are unsurprised when he lasts a good deal longer than that.

Straight off the Hollywood back lot, the kids he chooses to teach are the same old tough bunch of racial stereotypes we’ve seen dozens of times before in better and worse movies; they’d rather listen to hip-hop than, say, Dinah Washington or Ella Fitzgerald. And yet the moment they watch Dulaine dance the tango with one of his professional students in the film’s best, most liberating scene, what they witness is so undeniably sexy and hot, they decide to give it a go.

The rest of the film never lives up to the promise of that scene. As it moves toward its weakly conceived crescendo – a major dance competition the students enter – Friedlander weaves in and out of a blizzard of tiny melodramas that just don’t connect. This is her first feature film, and while her inexperience and lack of imagination shows, what can’t be overlooked is the performance she gets from Banderas, which is very fine, indeed.

Grade: C-

On video and DVD

BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, written and directed by Neil Jordan, 135 minutes, rated R.

Neil Jordan’s “Breakfast on Pluto” truly is of its own universe. As adapted by Jordan from Pat McCabe’s novel, the film is as free-wheeling as the times, particularly since the main character, the transvestite Patrick “Kitten” Braden (Cillian Murphy), comes into his own just as the sexual revolution and drug culture of the 1960s and ’70s is gathering thrust.

Though he’d be the first to disagree, on one level Kitten is one lucky cat. In this new mod world where anything goes, his uniqueness is given a measure elbow room, even in his tiny Irish hamlet of Tyreelin, where he was left at the doorstep of a priest (Liam Neeson) as an infant and eventually raised by a family who couldn’t understand his desire to wear gold lame. Go figure.

Aware of their quiet (and sometimes not-so-quiet) disagreement with his lifestyle, Kitten decides enough is enough and hits the road, where he hopes to find his birth mother, a woman he has been told looks like the actress Mitzi Gaynor.

His life as a drifter begins when he thumbs a ride out of town. There, he meets up with a band called The Mohawks, in which the lead singer, Billy Hatchet (Cagin Friday), falls hard for him. Their relationship is the launching pad for a life of casual abandon.

Since Kitten doesn’t care whether he lives or dies, he allows himself a reckless sort of freedom in which homelessness is part of the equation, but then so are stints in which he works as Stephen Rea’s magician’s assistant and as the talent at a peep show.

Without failure, Kitten always is rescued – he has that affect on people, who tend to want to help him. What affect this has on the movie is that it robs it of any sense of urgency surrounding Kitten’s condition. Since there rarely is any question that he won’t survive even the most brutal of situations – and there are a few of them here – the movie lacks the dramatic weight it could have had had Kitten not been quite so invincible.

As played by Murphy in what is an excellent, absorbing performance, he’s sort of like a transvestite superhero – able to overcome impossible situations and look fabulous while doing it. A diverting, often entertaining movie that can be infectious if you give yourself over to it.

Grade: B

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

The A-Team: Complete Fourth Season – C

Bambi II – B+

Batman Begins – A

Breakfast on Pluto – B

Brokeback Mountain – A-

Broken Flowers – A-

The Brothers Grimm – D-

Capote – A

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – A-

Chicken Little – C-

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

Cirque Du Soleil: Corteo – A-

The Constant Gardener – A-

Derailed – C+

Doom – C+

Flightplan – B-

The Fog (2005) – D

The 40-Year-Old Virgin – A

Fun with Dick and Jane – C

Good Night, and Good Luck – A-

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire – B-

A History of Violence – A

Howl’s Moving Castle – A-

The Ice Harvest – B-

In Her Shoes – A-

Into the Blue – C-

The Island – C+

Jarhead – B

Junebug – A

King Kong – C

Knight Rider: Season Four – C-

Kung Fu Hustle – A

The Legend of Zorro – C+

Lord of War – C

Magnum P.I.: Complete Fourth Season – B

March of the Penguins – A

Memoirs of a Geisha – C+

Must Love Dogs – C+

North Country – C

Oliver Twist – B+

Paradise Now – A-

Pride & Prejudice – A

Prime – B-

Red Eye – B+

Rent – C-

Saw II – D-

Serenity – A-

The Squid and the Whale – B+

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – B+

Thank God It’s Friday – B

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride – B+