How She Move

Not original "original" screenplay

By CHRIS BRAIOTTA | January 23, 2008

2.5 Stars

HOW SHE MOVE: Bursts of drama despite the “original” screenplay.

How She Move has an “original screenplay” — but no one who’s ever seen a movie would use the word “original” to describe it. Raya (Rutina Wesley) must leave her posh boarding school when her soon-to-die junkie sister soaks up all the family’s money. How rude! That leaves Raya back in with her Jamaican family, and desperate to find her way back from the dead-end Queens streets. But here’s the good news: she’s one heck of a dancer, and a national stepdancing competition is mere weeks away. So yeah, the plot outline evokes a thousand HBO midafternoons. But director Ian Iqbal Rashid marries a gritty, unglamorous shooting style to an interest in what’s going on between the plot points. The dance sequences suffer for the lack of gloss, but it’s a fair trade because tiny bursts of drama erupt whenever the plot looks the other way. 98 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs

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HOW SHE MOVE | January 23, 2008
The dance sequences suffer for the lack of gloss, but it’s a fair trade because tiny bursts of drama erupt whenever the plot looks the other way.