The Dancer Upstairs

The Dancer Upstairs
by John Malkovich

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Movie Reviews of The Dancer Upstairs

Movie Review: My Blind Date with the Dancer Upstairs
Summary: 5 Stars

Let's talk about my blind date with The Dancer Upstairs.

Well, I certainly had low expectations for The Dancer Upstairs, a movie I had never heard of, with a cast, of which whose members, I had never heard, so starting at the bottom we had nowhere to go but up. Kind of like being guilty until proven innocent.

THE DANCER UPSTAIRS

I think of this movie as one of the so called artsy films. One thing you can say about artsy films if I may state the obvious is that they are either very good or very bad. Seldom are they in between. The Dancer Upstairs was a BABE.

Main Characters:

Javier Bardem ... Det. Lt. Agustín Rejas
Juan Diego Botto ... Det. Sgt. Sucre
Laura Morante ... Yolanda
Elvira Mínguez ... Det. Llosa
Alexandra Lencastre ... Sylvina Rejas
Oliver Cotton ... Police Chief Merino

All Star cast right? Well don't let the names fool you they all did first rate jobs.

Plot:

The story takes place in an undisclosed Latin American Country that is undergoing chronic sustained terrorist attacks from Marx-Leninist guerillas whose leader, Ezequiel, fancies himself as the fourth prophet of Communism, (Shinnig Path?) the others being Marx, Lenin, and Mao. Ezequiel, though he is the subject of the movie, is really only in two scenes in the movie, in the beginning and near the end.

Our hero, Det. Lt. Agustín Rejas (Javier Bardem)is put in charge of the task force, charged with the capture of the elusive guerilla leader. Rejas, an ex lawyer turned police detective is given an ultimatum of sorts, a short period of time to effect his assignment or marshal law would be enacted. As it is, a trio of terrorist bombs triggered marshal law anyway, wherein the army assumed the investigation and took all gathered evidence and notes.

The movie also depicted Rejas the family man. He is married with a young teenage daughter Marina. She is an aspiring ballerina whose teacher, Yolanda (Laura Morante)is the Dancer Upstairs of the title. Rejas, whose marriage seems to be one of mutual respect with little passion, is drawn to the interesting and lovely dance instructor and she to him but something seems to be holding her back.

I found The Dancer Upstairs, to be interesting (in a historical way), provocative (provoking thought)and quite enjoyable. True, it is not a world beater but it was well presented and directed and something I should mention is that the only connection of this movie to Hollywood was the Director, John Malkovich in his directorial debut. After refusing directing oppurtuities for many years, Malkovich was so enamored with the 1997 Nicolas Shakspeare book, that he produced and directed this gem. Malkovich even went so far as to have Shakespeare write the screenplay.

The acting was very good, though not overly emotional. the actors were well cast and did a very realistic portrayals of their respective characters. Lead actor, Javier Bardem reminds me of Stacy Keach both in looks and acting styles, Rejas' sidekick Sucre, was played by a dashing, personable actor named Juan Diego Botto. I'm sure we'll be hearing more of him in the future. Lead and supporting actresses,
Laura Morante and Elvira Mínguez also did credible work Morante as the Dancer and Minuez as one of the task force though her part was fairly small.

All in all it was a pretty good blind date. Final rating 4.6 stars

Summary of The Dancer Upstairs