Herewith, the familiar baby steps: In the seedy reaches of Baltimore, a disaffected white foster child named Tyler Gage (She's the Man's buff Channing Tatum) stews in his own juices, steals cars, and shoots playground hoops with streetwise black friends like Mac (hulking Damaine Radcliff). Predictably, Tyler wears his baseball cap backwards and confronts his dead-end hopelessness with a sneer and a shrug. But he has also picked up a slew of transracial leaps, tumbles, and spins on the way to high school and that, of course, is the one thing that sets him free -- busting moves. For our glowering, semisoulful Ty, the Bee Gees may be ancient history (if he knows them at all), but the fever burns deep inside him too. What dumb luck, then, to get caught vandalizing a stage set at the elite-albeit-funky Maryland School of the Arts. Ordered by the judge to take up mop and bucket for 200 hours of community service at the school, our boy is about to discover his self-esteem and get redeemed by aesthetics. As if we didn't already know that art heals all wounds.
The dancing's inventive, but not especially dirty. Relieved of his janitorial duties when an ambitious rich girl (dancer/actress Jenna Dewan) needs a new partner for her number in the upcoming senior showcase, Tyler becomes the unfettered improviser of the new duo. The lithe, pretty girl, whose name is Nora, provides the classicism. Says he of her style: "This whole thing is stiff. It's boring." Replies she: Go get yourself a pair of tights, and then we'll see what we can do about that. From the beginning, the artistic cross-pollination and the budding love affair are destined to work out. Add the raw to the refined, combine unschooled passion with high purpose, and, well, you know. Bingo.
Tatum's relentless African American impersonation soon wears out its welcome, and the screenwriters are hard-pressed to advance the narrative. Suffice it to say that a predictable falling-out between hero and heroine, a secondary romance involving two other students, and a drive-by shooting we've seen coming from the start don't exactly stir the blood. Director Fletcher's strength is obviously her choreography, but the rehearsal scenes are repetitious, and the exciting grand finale leaves you hungering for more -- even if the clumsy way it's filmed falls a little short of Bob Fosse or Stanley Donen. Inspiring dancers to move beautifully is one thing; getting their hard work to look right on the screen, rather than a stage, is another.
