Personally, I don’t think actors who start to direct their own movies all of a sudden is a good idea per se. Sean Penn’s directorial debut, The Pledge, starring Jack Nicholson, was rather blurry and disappointing and George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was overly pretentious ‘ though listed among the most well-rated films 2002 (sorry for the guys over here who adored it ‘ it did nothing to me). So when I heard about the directorial debut of John Malkovich, The Dancer Upstairs, the prejudices started running through my veins. Not a fair way to approach a movie you hardly know anything about. The only thing there was left for me to do was clear my mind and enter the movie blanco. So I did.

The Dancer Upstairs takes place in an undefined South American country on the verge of revolution. Two anti-terrorists investigators, Rejas and Sucre, are on the rather morbid trail of a terrorist group. The group’s actions begin rather innocently, yet gruesomely, by hanging dead dogs on street lamps. But gradually the actions become more aggressive, with bombings and assassinations of politicians. The problem Rejas and Sucre face lies within the fact that no one knows anything about this group. The only clue the two investigators have is the cry ‘Viva presidente Ez’quiel’ that is heard more and more frequently after the group’s strikes. In the meantime Rejas falls in love with the ballet teacher of his daughter… an impossible love.

The way The Dancer Upstairs starts off is a way that would actually cause a lot of people to leave the movie theater already. We see a broad South American landscape and a car with three people and a dead dog run over a man on a street before arriving at a frontier outpost. The trick Malkovich plays here is a dangerous one. Normally a person needs to slowly move into a movie. Malkovich demands immediate attention at a place one might think you can just sit back and let the story take you away. If you are going to see this movie: pay much attention to the people depicted in the first few scenes, even though they may appear irrelevant. It took a friend of mine to explain these scenes to me, which is a rare event.

The Dancer Upstairs stars nothing but South American/Spanish unknown actors, but is 90% in English. The unknown actors add something to the story and the movie. It leaves you completely without a reference point which serves to enhance the credibility of the movie and doesn’t bring up all kinds of references to other movies. It is also pleasantly surprising in many ways: the dark eerie atmosphere that unfolds in an unknown, vague South American country; the attacks by the terrorist groups that become stranger and stranger; and the way irrelevant events are tied up to a prolific plot.

Based on a novel by Nicholas Shakespeare, The Dancer Upstairs had all the signs of being a pretentious movie but in the end it’s nothing more than a well constructed web of intrigues, crime, love and treason. And that’s a good thing!

Directed by: John Malkovich
Starring: Javier Bardem, Juan Diego Botto and Laura Morante

‘The Dancer Upstairs’ runs 133 minutes and is now showing

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