Synopsis
A police detective in a South American country is dedicated to hunting down a revolutionary guerilla leader.
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Cast
- Javier BardemAgustín Rejas
- Juan Diego BottoSucre
- Laura MoranteYolanda
- Elvira MínguezLlosa
- Alexandra LencastreSylvina Rejas
- Oliver CottonMerino
- Luís Miguel CintraCalderón
- Javier ManriqueClorindo
- Abel FolkEzequiel / Durán
- Xabier ElorriagaPascual
Recommendations
- 90
Time
Patient and plodding -- but as realized by John Malkovich, in his directorial debut, utterly absorbing. - 83
Entertainment Weekly
The movie has a mystery, and moral unease, that lingers. - 80
Slate
The film has a foggy cast to it--flat and insinuatingly creepy, like the actor. But then it can be lit, in an instant, by searing flash-pots of cruelty and wit. Even when it's slightly opaque, it's transfixing. - 80
Salon
The Dancer Upstairs, is a haunting and often beautiful work, part doomed romance and part political thriller, that demonstrates the adult command of the medium Malkovich has always demonstrated as an actor. - 75
USA Today
It has an elusive, haunting quality, but it's too long at 133 minutes, and there aren't many movies these days that get more involving as they progress. - 70
New York Magazine (Vulture)
At its best in the interludes between explosions. - 63
Boston Globe
Far from perfect but completely unique, the film could best be described as a paranoid South American metaphysical political thriller -- you heard me -- and whatever its failures, they're not ones of nerve or imagination. - 63
Chicago Tribune
A promising film rather than a fully realized one.
