By Reviewer Paul Tatara

(CNN) -- At its middling best, Nicholas Hytner's "Center Stage" is a cross between "Fame" (1980) and an "ABC Afterschool Special" about the painful beauty of ballet dancing. Mostly, though, it's "Dawson's Creek" populated by people who can jump really high. Suffice it to say that there are sweet-looking 17-year-old girls in this movie who could slap away a carelessly considered Reggie Miller three-pointer.

Hytner directed a very good film adaptation of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" back in 1996, making him an unlikely candidate to bring this material to such low-calorie fruition. But he's also won a Tony award and has spent his fair share of time around dancers. Given a decent cast and script, he may have been able to accomplish something.

Dancers, not actors

Sadly, "Center Stage"'s dull screenplay is further hamstrung by performers who, for the most part, couldn't act their way out of a Lincoln Center parking ticket.

The dilemma facing directors who have to shoot this kind of thing is whether to go with dancers who can act or actors who can dance. You can't exactly fake ballet, though it seems likely the producers would have dangled Keanu Reeves from a very thin wire had he shown interest.

Hytner did the smartest thing he could by hiring dancers. A young actress on the level of Natalie Portman probably couldn't draw honest emotion out of Carol Heikinnen's gushy dialogue, and there aren't many kids with Portman's screen ability bounding around out there.

It doesn't really matter, in the long run. Heikinnen's I-gotta-dance melodrama would eventually sink any performance.

Simple plot

Don't worry about getting overwhelmed by intricate streams of information. As is so often the case, each character is given a single identifying trait, then the trait gets re-examined virtually every time they appear on camera.

Amanda Schull (of the San Francisco Ballet) plays Jody, a gee-whiz type with great teeth who just wants to be a ballerina. Jody is a good kid, but when she gets accepted to a prestigious New York City school, she suddenly has to contend with being one of the lesser dancers in her class.

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The instructors (including Peter Gallagher, as the rather lifeless head of the program) are forever on Jody's case because she doesn't possess the other-worldly grace of some of her snootier classmates. Apparently, she has trouble turning her feet out, something that we're repeatedly told is done "from the hips." Most people take the lazy route and do it from the ankles. The bums.

All the usual suspects are on hand, and they all get nasty blisters on their feet from hours of brutal rehearsal.

There's Charlie (Sascha Radetsky), the sweet, sensitive guy who Jody doesn't notice gazing at her longingly; Maureen (Susan May Pratt), the anorexic prima donna with a fire-breathing stage mom; Eva (Zoe Saldana), the angry minority character who's carrying a chip on her shoulder; and Eric (Shakiem Evans), the cute gay guy who mostly just sits there and does nothing because he's gay and the studio doesn't want to take any chances.

Enter the creep

By law, Jody also needs to worship an arrogant dancer who lures her into bed with his unctuous charm and taut leg muscles. Enter Ethan Steifel, who could very well be jumping over a small building as you read this.

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There's some great dancing in this movie -- about one set piece every 15 minutes, some of which aren't ballets -- and Hytner allows his camera to sit back and record the movement instead of trying to out-pirouette his subjects. Dreamy adolescent girls could sit through far worse things in a movie theater, and there's a certain good-heartedness to the proceedings.

But the movie melts away like cheap cotton candy. Technically speaking, there should be enough dramatic tension to make the audience a little jumpy too.

Most of the dancers in "Center Stage" smoke cigarettes to keep their weight down. Surprisingly, no one ever mentions that it's bad for them. There's a fair amount of profanity, and Jody is seen lounging in bed with her lover after he's plucked her flowers. Rated PG-13. 115 minutes, and that's too long.

In ballet, on big screen, Ethan Stiefel takes 'Center Stage'
date

American Ballet Theatre home page
Official 'Center Stage' site

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