The Dancer Upstairs
Screening: 21 February 2005
USA 2002
Directed by John Malkovich
Leading players ~ Javier Bardem, John Malkovich, Laura Morante.
113 minutes.
Synopsis
Dancer Upstairs is more than a striking debut for John Malkovich. Adapted for the screen from the novel by the same name by the author, Nicholas Shakespeare, the story itself is one of terror, murder and heinous crimes shown in an unsanitised way. Yet the screenplay focuses more on the minds of his characters rather than the graphic events that punctuate the narrative.Tasked to track down a terrorist, Javier Bardem must wade through the politics and philosophy driving the film’s substance as well as the trists and complexities of his own personal experience. The 'revolutionary' is a professor of philosophy and his nemesis, tracing his identity and capture, is a thinking man's policeman that an audience can believe in.
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Javier Bardem is the star of this film but the depth of co-stars maintains the strengths of the script without becoming overly intense and annoying. His sidekick is well acted by Juan Diego Botto, and the lead women actors, Laura Morente (as the dancer of the title) and Alexandra Lancastre (as Bardem's wife), are as subtle as they are beautiful, making us believe in the inevitable proof of Bardem's human frailty as he struggles through the convoluted trail that leads inexorably toward justice.
