The Dancer Upstairs Movie Review:


Who is Ezequiel? This is the question that is constantly pondered on the detective character Agustin Rejas (Bardem) in the John Malkovich directed The Dancer Upstairs.

In an unnamed Latin American country, Ezequiel is actually a hidden terrorist leader of Marxism and Kant that is stirring up a revolution in the country. With the difficulty of no one ever seeing Ezequiel's face and his loyalty growing stronger each day, the authorities assign Rejas to catch him. The detective begins by trying to piece together the violent acts of his followers, which includes hanging dead dogs with blood written messages attached and suicide children bombers. Rejas is a dedicated police detective, but the country's government continues to put pressure on him to reveal Ezequiel's identity before the military is forced to declare martial law because of the threats on high ranking officials. Being caught in the stress of the assignment, Rejas becomes enticed by his young daughter's dance teacher (Morante), who is sophisticated and unique (she is actually terrified of the dark). As the investigation becomes more and more dangerous, Rejas' desire for the dance teacher grows more and more obsessive.

Actor John Malkovich makes his directorial debut with The Dancer Upstairs, which is based off of Nicholas Shakespeare's acclaimed novel. Malkovich is a rookie to film direction, but he has been a director of the theatrical stage for many years. The direction in the film is something that one would expect from Malkovich, elegant and strangely righteous, but nearly overdone. He captures a beautifully authentic essence throughout the film of the unnamed Latin country, which is gritty, dusty, and color burnt. The first half of the film is absolutely intriguing in laying its foundation; it seemed that the pace would have picked up as Rejas gets closer to revealing Ezequiel, but the film ends up moving dreadfully slower. The closure of the film could have occurred in any of its last three scenes, which are as slow as molasses. However, Malkovich's direction is respectable and noteworthy, in which he has fought for over six years to bring this story to the screen. The last delay on shelving the film was the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Nicholas Shakespeare adapted the screenplay from his own acclaimed novel of the same name. Though the country in the story is unnamed, Shakespeare based his story of Ezequiel off of Abimael Guzman, who was the leader of the 1980-1992 Peruvian revolution known as The Shining Path. A dedicated detective in Peru spent over a decade of his life to find and apprehend Guzman, this inspired Shakespeare's creation of Rejas. Shakespeare unleashes political, militaristic, governmental elements as well as symbolism throughout his story. Symbolic examples include the name Ezequiel after the prophet and the hanging of the dogs, which in China is symbolic of an execution of a tyrant by citizens. I could not help but think of Graham Greene's The Quiet American as an adapted literary similarity while I watched this film. The script is proficient, in which there is a lot going on with Rejas' investigation then of course the critical dance teacher affair subplot takes over the third act of the film. Like with Malkovich's direction, it seems that the first two acts of the script built up so much promise for a great finale, in which the finale is unforeseen, but really takes it time to unveil.

Javier Bardem delivers a great humble performance as the police detective Agustin Rejas. There are certain moments in the film where Bardem's basset hound eyes and kind gestures reflect deep emotions and inner thoughts of his character. As the dance teacher Yolanda, Italian actress Laura Morante is exquisite with her performance. Malkovich, who needless to say seems like an actor's director, filled his cast with great, but unknown international actors and also included them in his contract for the film. This was one of the problems with the production finding financing from producers, because there was not a legitimate box office star involved. Cheers to Malkovich for his dedication and sticking with the talented actors that he wanted.

The Dancer Upstairs is an intriguing revolutionary thriller that is beautifully made by director John Malkovich and sharply written by Nicholas Shakespeare. However, the built up outcome is more continuous than riveting. This film seems to drag and run out of energy in its third act.

Grade: C+

05/18/03

Joseph Tucker

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