How She Move (2007) starring Rutina Wesley, Romania D'Ugo, Kevin Duhaney, Shawn Fernandez, Brennan Gademans directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid Movie Review

How She Move (2007)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Rutina Wesley as Raya Green in How She Move (2007)

Left Me Unmoved

For me "How She Move" suffers from "familiarity breeds contempt" because I watched and watched and watched waiting to be entertained but never was. The trouble starts with the fact that the movie starts in a similar way to "Save the Last Dance" and continues along the same lines except the dancing of choice is step. But the trouble continues because it gets to a point where the storyline becomes almost irrelevant as dance scenes take precedence. Now for those who watch "How She Move" for the dance will enjoy it but for those who watch for the combination of story and dance will be left disappointed.

With her parents to no longer able to afford the tuition fee to the private school she attends Raya (Rutina Wesley) is forced to return home to their small apartment and her old school where she is met with aggression by those who are jealous that she managed to leave. Refusing to give up hope of going to Medical School Raya not only tries to get a scholarship but she also looks to join a step-dance crew and enter a dance competition to win the money she would need for tuition. But things don't go well as she over steps the mark in a dance competition and has to choose between staying loyal to friends and just focussing on herself.

Dwain Murphy as Bishop in How She Move (2007)

So I've already mentioned "Save the Last Dance" because "How She Move" does seem similar especially during the start where we have Raya having to return home from boarding school back to her old school where she faces a lot of attitude for having gone to a snobbish school. Whilst the reasoning for her return, a drug addicted sister and her parents unable to afford the fees, is different much of what follows seems cliche. Even the fact that Raya wants to better her self by getting to medical school doesn't feel that new because the subject of those bettering themselves through dance isn't new either.

But the similarity to other movies isn't my main issue, my main issue is that the storyline ends up taking a backseat in favour of the dance scenes. So we may have issues over Raya over stepping the mark in a dance competition causing a rift between her and her friend Bishop but it is really very slim. Not only that all of this builds to a typical, crowd pleasing cliche ending where Raya does the right thing after doing the selfish thing. Trust me I am not giving anything away by saying that because it is all very predictable.

So "How She Move" does become a movie all about the dance and fans of step-dancing will love it because there is loads of it. There is what seems to be a dance fight in school, there is practicing in a garage and on top of cars, there is dancing on the roof plus of course competitions. All of which is great for those who love step-dancing but for those whose curiosity to watch was partly lead by the blend of story and dance will end up disappointed.

What this all boils down to is that "How She Move" left me unimpressed because not only was it too familiar but the storyline took a backseat as we got one dance scene after another. But as such those who enjoy the visual treat of step-dancing will most likely enjoy "How She Move" because you get a lot of it.


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