Do yourself a favor and go see “”The Dancer Upstairs,”” the directorial debut of John Malkovich. Eerily relevant to the present world situation, this bittersweet drama with a twist of irony deals with acts of terrorism in an unnamed Latin American country and its government’s search for a face to lay on them.
Agustin Rejas, played by Javier Bardem, is an ex-lawyer turned police investigator. Under the bureaucratic scrutiny of a military state, Rejas is investigating an elusive Marxist revolutionary, Ezequiel (Abel Folk), and his guerillas. They issue no official manifesto, and begin committing savage yet symbolic acts of terrorism. Rejas, although unusually intelligent and sensitive for a cop, finds that the nature of the revolution is no secret among the country’s people.
Unhappy with his superficial wife, Sylvina (Alexandra Lencastre), a subscriber to numerous fashion magazines and obsessed with plastic surgery, Rejas finds solace with his young daughter Laura’s (Marie-Anne Berganza) dance instructor, Yolanda (Laura Morante). Her world intrigues him, yet turns out to represent all that he is working against in his investigation. The political becomes the personal in many ways for Agustin Rejas as he walks this web of interesting and sophisticated characters.
Malkovich, for his debut film direction, chose the controversial novel and screenplay of Nicholas Shakespeare, also a first-timer working in film. As the son of a British ambassador in Peru, Shakespeare’s work is loosely based on his first-hand observations of the Shining Path movement, whose radical Maoist leader, Abimael Guzman, is represented by Ezequiel in the film. “”Dancer”” has a very eerie sense of reality running through it as a result of this concrete rooting in facts (besides its other relevant global implications).
The casting of Bardem in the role of Agustin Rejas could not have been a better choice. He portrays the detective with such subtlety and concentration that in the moments when the script calls for dynamic shifts in expression, they are all the more effective and cut right through the screen. Bardem’s mild-mannered demeanor walking the glass shards of pent up rage is reminiscent of the acting style of Malkovich himself, who most likely had something to do with the execution of this bold performance.
Other characters, such as Rejas’ young sidekick, Sucre (Juan Diego Botto), as well as his wife, Sylvina, are well cast, injecting quirkiness into this film — such characters as these provide the comic relief that makes this film so well rounded. Morante portrays the sexy, sophisticated dance instructor, Yolanda, with raw passion bridled by subtlety, ease and style. Her performance is comparable to, yet a 180-degree difference from the performance of Bardem, giving them a unique, detached chemistry on screen.
“”The Dancer Upstairs”” is a beautifully orchestrated and balanced work that transcends film genre classification. Exuding a foreign film style, you might find yourself looking for subtitles even though the film is in English. Although the story is an ideologically charged fable, it ultimately proves to shy from taking sides, instead embedding its message in motifs and images that are open to subjective interpretation.
The film is as reluctant to spell out its own meaning as it is to side with political affiliations. Incorporating modern dance directly into the plot, as well as picturesque cinematography, this film is perfect for cerebral, artsy types. But this aspect does not limit the film’s palatability for all audience members. The action sequences, love story and thriller track of this film make it a whirl for all types. “”The Dancer Upstairs”” is absolutely the best cinematic in the past year if not longer.
The only drawback to this film is that it might be too cerebral. The whodunit, the political drama, the thriller, the love story — all of these, in order to be most effective on a mainstream audience so used to conventional archetypes, require a certain degree of simplicity. Instead of melding all these genres together with simpleton ease, “”The Dancer Upstairs”” does so in such a way that one might feel alienated by its intellectual prowess rather than be intrigued. Nevertheless, this is only a marginal glitch in an otherwise perfect work.
