The Dancer
Upstairs is getting notice for being John Malkovich's directing debut.
While being slightly overlong, this shifting political drama from Nicholas
Shakespeare's adaptation of his own novel is charged from the depth of
Javier Bardem as a responsive police detective. The story of searching
for an anarchist in an unidentified Latin American country has its share
of terrorist activities, like horrific murders and stealth bombings that
are drawn from Peru's Shining Path organization.
The relationship
of Bardem's troubled Agustin Rejas to his ten-year-old daughter's ballet
teacher Yolanda (Laura Morante) may not be that fulfilling for some, but
from the awful sight on lampposts to the corruption and military falling
on the dissidents, The Dancer Upstairs subtly intrigues us.
