Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

grantss Interesting, intriguing drama. On the surface a police-vs-terrorists/revolutionaries thriller, but it is much more than that. Emotional, human drama too.Good performances by Javier Bardem and Laura Morante in the lead roles.Only big negative is with the production quality - sound level is quite low.

paul2001sw-1 You've got to give John Malkovich credit for his directorial debut: instead of making some corny, expositionary thriller, he instead made this stylised, impressionistic film that eschews conventional causality and contrivance in favour of showing us just a scattering of glimpses at an elusive story. And the piece definitely has an atmosphere, but watching it, one has the feeling one might have at an art gallery, the images are powerful but lack connections, and the closed characters also give little away. The fact that the drama takes place in an unnamed South American country, and one whose inhabitants speak English in a (presumably deliberate but still bewildering) variety of accents maybe doesn't help; that in the absence of specifics, this is a story taking place in a country of the mind. It's still an intelligent and occasionally beguiling film: but I'm not convinced of the substance behind the effect.

Blaine Dixon Pretty good, but..., 12 January 2003 7/10 Author: cyberpix says....>"I may be called a language extremist, but I was very disturbed by the >fact that they were all speaking English. Yes, Malkovich speaks English, >as most of his potential public. But still, there is no reason for >Spanish-speaking actors in a Spanish-speaking story set in a >Spanish-speaking country to do so !!!"Are you disturbed by so many English Speaking films set in English speaking countries that are dubbed into Spanish?Why am I required to post ten lines when cyberpix got his posted with less than ten lines?

Philip Van der Veken Having seen "Being John Malkovich" recently, I expected a lot from "The Dancer Upstairs" and I have to admit that I really was enchanted by it. Even though it never says which country in South America this story is based on, it's clear that it must be Peru. There just are too many references to the rebel movement The Shining Path, president Fujimori... But it's good that it never says that it is actually Peru. There are more South American dictatorships, more rebel movements...It tells the story of an ex-lawyer who has become police officer, because he wanted justice to be done in the right way. He has to hunt down and arrest a revolutionary guerilla leader, but as he digs deeper, he'll find out that more people are actually supporting the rebels than he thought, even the people that he never suspected...What I liked so much about the movie is the way it portrays everything. It doesn't fear to show the violence committed by both sides, but also shows the beautiful side of the country (its landscapes, its culture,...). Some say this is clearly a right-wing movie and that Malkovich is right wing as well. What has the political preference of the director to do with it? This movie isn't right-wing, nor is it left-wing. It clearly shows both sides, giving you the police detective who works for the right-wing government, who falls in love with the left-wing activist.If there is one remark that I have to make, than it must be the fact that the actors didn't speak in Spanish. Now they had some weird Spanish-English accent. But all the rest was really very good. I give it an 8.5/10.