Boxer has to win big fight to get money to pay for the operation to save her mother’s sight.  The fight ends in a more than exciting climax.  It is the same old Hollywood story in one form or another.  In HOW SHE MOVE, the new Canadian movie about step dancing filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, Raya Green (Rutina Wesley) has her hopes on winning the Detroit Step Contest so that she can get the prize money to further her medical education.  Perhaps the writer took the clichéd story one step further – so that she, as a qualified surgeon, can operate on her mother’s eyes in the future if it needs be.

The contest involves step groups.  The audience has to bear with a Harlequin styled romance with Raya opting for a rival group before settling in with her boyfriend’s (Dwain Murphy).  To add fuel to the fire, Raya has to prove to her family that she can do what it takes as poor sis has died from drugs.  Logic in the film?  Raya’s group demolish an expensive vintage car during the final in which has the prize money can barely cover the damages.

The step contest at the climax is choreographed effectively and the young actors are all quite good.  The dance rotuines performed by the rival groups in the final round are actually better than Raya’s group’s.  But the horrid script and direction cannot lift HOW SHE MOVE out of the doldrums.  Everyone in the film appears to be showing off rather than having a good time.  This is evident by director Rashid allowing the MCs to have too much to say during the finals.  It feels like the film wants to be a documentary about step.  Unfortunately, this has been done so much more effectively in David LaChapelle’s RIZE back in 2005.