Pierre Dulaine is a Manhattan ballroom teacher and competitor who volunteers his time to teach ballroom dancing to a group of New York inner city high school kids. Initially forced to participate as a form of detention, the kids reject Mr. Dulaine's efforts until his unwavering commitment and dedication finally inspires them to embrace the program, infusing it with their own unique hip-hop style while... - skip ad - Genres: Drama, Musical/Performing Arts and Biopic Running Time: 108 min. Release Date: April 7th, 2006 (wide) MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, language and some violence. Distributor: New Line Cinema Cast And Credits Starring: Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Yaya DaCosta, Dante Basco, John Ortiz Directed by: Liz Friedlander Produced by: Diane Nabatoff, Christopher Godsick, Michelle Grace

Essentially "Mad Hot Ballroom" for mallrats, "Take the Lead" takes its lead from the life of Pierre Dulaine, the debonair founder of the popular program that brought ballroom dancing to New York inner-city public schools.

Upping the ages of the participants to high school level in order to bring more mature issues into the mix, veteran music video director Liz Friedlander and screenwriter Dianne Houston have come up with a hip-hop-flavored hybrid that attempts to rescore the classic American Songbook with street beats, but the resulting mash-up fails to dazzle on the dance floor.

Still, it's considerably more energetic than the anemic Richard Gere-Jennifer Lopez version of "Shall We Dance?" and given a well-timed release that rides smartly on the coattails of the ridiculously successful "Dancing With the Stars," this New Line presentation definitely has a leg up with female-skewing audiences.

Taking her cue from a segment on CBS' "The Early Show" featuring Dulaine that predated the release of "Mad Hot Ballroom," scripter Houston has tailored a workable scenario for star Antonio Banderas, who plays the dance teacher/life mentor with an appealing combination of easy charisma and convincing passion.

When he first pitches the concept of ballroom dance instruction to no-nonsense principal Augustine James (Alfre Woodard), who runs her high school with the eagle-eyed authority of a prison warden, Dulaine is met with more than a little wide-eyed incredulity.

But the short-staffed James decides to test Dulaine's mettle by assigning him to detention hall duty, where an assortment of badass Sweathogs greet his Dinah Washington and Lena Horne records with unsurprising disdain.

Gradually, though -- especially after witnessing Dulaine and one of the adult students from his academy engage in a particularly heated tango -- the kids agree to meet him halfway, merging their hip-hop style with his traditional dance moves to come up with something fresh.

Unfortunately, as kinetically directed by Friedlander, that fusion only creates a lot of confusion as the film struggles to sustain a rhythm while bouncing back and forth between the uplifting dance sequences (choreographed by JoAnn Jansen) and the dramatic element going down in the mean streets of New York (played, yet again, by Toronto, aka the Big Maple).

The production is not without its spirited numbers, but when it looks like it's going to finally take flight, it ends up taking too many false steps, especially during an especially choppy finale.

Things hold together longer than they would have without Banderas' commanding, committed performance, and while it's easy to pick out the dancing actors from the acting dancers, his young co-stars -- led by Rob Brown ("Finding Forrester") and engaging newcomer Yaya DaCosta -- do their best to keep it real, at least on the emotive front.