Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Mr. Beaks has a John Malkovich interview kicking around his hard-drive somewhere, and I assume he’s also got a review of this upcoming limited release. While we’re waiting for him to end his Lost Weekend (which has been going on for 18 months and counting now) and actually transcribe that stuff for us, we’ve got the “in-famous” El Guapo with his take on the film:
Harry,
El Guapo here with a review of a very interesting film: The Dancer Upstairs.
First off, before I even start to talk about the wonderful way it was done, I have to talk about the language. This movie is set in an unnamed Latin American country. Every single actor in that movie has Spanish as their natural tongue. There are tiny snippets of odd Indian tongues throughout, but everything is basically in English with a thick latin american accent. It is all supposed to be in Spanish but he chose to dumb it down for Americans... bloody hell. I mean, this movie is by no means commercial, it is bloody, violent, pensive, and very slow.
Then, why in the name of whatever is holy, would you ever have everyone speak English. It lost so much of the richness of the film. Spanish has such a great sound to it and going to see a subtitled movie, while it is a little more work, always makes me feel proud of myself. For this story to have been its most powerful, it had to have been in English. I can see how Malkovich, the director, would have been hesitant because it is his first film and he didn't want everything translated for him, but jesus, if you are going to tackle something like this, do it right. John Sayles does it all the time and his movies rock.
Ok, past all that, I want to talk about how wonderful this movie is. Coming in to the screening I had a feeling that it would be a slow, melodramatic movie with a hard punch. I was right, it was slow, but in a good way. I only looked at my watch once, and that was sort of in a way to get my arm away from the heavy breather next to me. The protagonist, Rejas, played wonderfully by Javier Bardem, is going through a journey trying to find the man behind a revolution known only as Ezequiel. I really get to know the guy and I wanted to see how and if he succeeded. The story is shown with such precision and such ease that I just watch it all happen like, WOW, and Rejas never really seems to lose his cool.
There is a requisite love story in this film, but I adore how it is done. He loves his wife, he loves her and his family like nothing else. But he meets his daughter's ballet teacher who seems to dance to the beat of a different drum. As much as he would love to dance along with her, he knows that he can only follow his own. The actress, Laura Morante, is amazing. She has a sweetness to her, and this quiet fragility that made me yearn for her too. Her screams were a little blood curdling, but she is hurt and, well..
John Malkovich... John bloody Malkovich. He has been such a great actor over the years, churning out amazing films that are always filled with his amazing charm. Even though, with this film, he became a cliche, he just may graduate to Clint Eastwood level. Barring the language, this guy seems to really know how to tell a story. At two and a half hours, many will think it is quite long, but, oh well, so was Hamlet. Now, I am not comparing this to Shakespeare, ever though it was written by Shakespeare, Nicholas Shakespeare. I know, I fell in to that stupid trap, but I had to do it. It is like if I ever met Sean Connery, I would say, my name is Guapo, El Guapo, but there you go.
Malkovich didn't try to make this for the MTV people, and rightly so, this story is not just about revolution and power, it is about love and finding yourself, and you can't find yourself when there is a splice ever 20 frames. Malkovich made this a sweeping story with lots of close-ups and a very stagnant camera, and I liked it. But I just must talk about the violence...DAMN, I SAID MAN ALIIIIVE, Much like in any revolution people must die, and so must dogs apparently. But this just screamed of the tactics used today in middle east and that was a hard hit. At the beginning this little boy, maybe 5 years old, walks in to a room and says he must find his father. He hands a man his little backpack and says "Viva el Presidente Ezequiel" That was hard to watch.
Ending this review I just want to say that, I have tried to make this a luke-warm to warm review and I hope it carried through. This is a very good film in some ways, you should definitely check it out if you have them time, but beware that this is by a first time director so he made mistakes. I leave you with a paraphrase of a line in the film, because my memory sucks: "If you write down everywhere you have been, you have just written down a fence for yourself."
El Guapo signing out
Yes, El Guapo, I WOULD say you have a plethora of pinatas.
"Moriarty" out.
