Chris Knipp
05-25-2003, 04:11 AM
This film naturally invites comparison with City of Ghosts, because both are concurrent directorial debuts by actors with semi-political thriller plots that take place in exotic places. Matt Dillon was working with a sketchier plot which, in some ways, is hokey. The ending is a bit fudged. The main plot developments of The Dancer Upstairs are absolutely clear. The problem in its case is that the drive of the action falters time and again because of the complexity of the story Nicholas Shakespeare is trying to convey in adapting his own novel about a writer and the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) revolutionary/terrorist organization that created chaos in Peru in the Eighties.
It's a little bothersome that (1) the actors are all Spanish or in one case Italian speakers, but all are made to speak English, though the scene is Latin America. It's artificial, and it weakens the scenes because they're working in another language, not always with complete conviction or dexterity. And (2) you know what's going to happen before it happens, except for one surprise, which is hard to care about, because the romance has been as languid as a lot of the other plot movement.
Malkovich does create a sense of ominous foreboding and fear. But the tension comes and goes. There are longeurs -- slow boring passages when I for one almost started to doze. The romance with Yolanda, the dance teacher, is poorly motivated. Again Shakespeare/Malkovich are trying to tell a very complicated story, and they get bogged down at times.
People may think Dancer Upstairs is more sophisticated than City of Ghosts, but City of Ghosts has wonderful atmosphere. The Cambodian setting is well used, boldly, in your face every minute. I've rarely seen an exotic, poor country so intensely conveyed on screen. Scenes are extremely vivid. There is nothing languid about the action, ever. The payoff may be somewhat disappointing, but you're left with an intense impression. Dancer Upstairs has atmosphere, too, the sense of pervasive disorder in a country ruled by terror.
I'm not convinced either film is quite successful; both are creditable efforts. Bardem is more interesting than Dillon to watch; but then, Dillon has the help of Stellan Skarsgaard, Gerard Depardieu, and best of all, James Caan. All in all the movie in this category that is by far the best recent one is The Quiet American, directed by Philip Noyce, with a wonderful performance by Michael Caine. It succeeds better because the screenplay and the direction are tighter and the raw material, Graham Greene's novel, is better, and the adaptation has made it even more pointed politically, and Christopher Doyle is a superb cinematographer.
Someone has said that Malkovich ought to have gone for schlock--pure thriller-- or for the classy mood piece he is constantly drifting into-- not try to do both in one movie. That may be right.
It's a little bothersome that (1) the actors are all Spanish or in one case Italian speakers, but all are made to speak English, though the scene is Latin America. It's artificial, and it weakens the scenes because they're working in another language, not always with complete conviction or dexterity. And (2) you know what's going to happen before it happens, except for one surprise, which is hard to care about, because the romance has been as languid as a lot of the other plot movement.
Malkovich does create a sense of ominous foreboding and fear. But the tension comes and goes. There are longeurs -- slow boring passages when I for one almost started to doze. The romance with Yolanda, the dance teacher, is poorly motivated. Again Shakespeare/Malkovich are trying to tell a very complicated story, and they get bogged down at times.
People may think Dancer Upstairs is more sophisticated than City of Ghosts, but City of Ghosts has wonderful atmosphere. The Cambodian setting is well used, boldly, in your face every minute. I've rarely seen an exotic, poor country so intensely conveyed on screen. Scenes are extremely vivid. There is nothing languid about the action, ever. The payoff may be somewhat disappointing, but you're left with an intense impression. Dancer Upstairs has atmosphere, too, the sense of pervasive disorder in a country ruled by terror.
I'm not convinced either film is quite successful; both are creditable efforts. Bardem is more interesting than Dillon to watch; but then, Dillon has the help of Stellan Skarsgaard, Gerard Depardieu, and best of all, James Caan. All in all the movie in this category that is by far the best recent one is The Quiet American, directed by Philip Noyce, with a wonderful performance by Michael Caine. It succeeds better because the screenplay and the direction are tighter and the raw material, Graham Greene's novel, is better, and the adaptation has made it even more pointed politically, and Christopher Doyle is a superb cinematographer.
Someone has said that Malkovich ought to have gone for schlock--pure thriller-- or for the classy mood piece he is constantly drifting into-- not try to do both in one movie. That may be right.