"The Dancer Upstairs" (bad title) takes us to a fictitious Latin American country governed by a harsh, if not evil, dictator who is plagued by an evil revolutionary known only as Ezequiel. The plot develops around a cop who is charged with tracking down Ezequiel, a difficult task in spite of the fact that mysterious revolutionary has no problem rallying grass roots support and recruiting suicide bombers making one wonder if the government ever heard of such antiterrorist tactics as "undercover" or "torture" or "snitch"...etc. Classy but superficial, "The Dancer Upstairs" gives the illusion of quality film making as slogs tediously to its anticlimactic conclusion without every having developed a human story worth the 2+ hour wait. Recommended only as a curiosity for those interested in what it's like being John Malkovich, the director. (C+)
Review of The Dancer Upstairs
