X
  • 2003
  • R
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 2 h 12 m
  • 2003
  • R
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 2 h 12 m

Summary As a Latin American nation nears collapse under a highly organized terrorist movement, idealistic policeman Agustin Rejas (Bardem) faces the greatest challenge of his career: to catch the mysterious guerilla leader Ezequiel. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Directed By: John Malkovich

Written By: Nicholas Shakespeare

  • 2003
  • R
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 2 h 12 m
  • 2003
  • R
  • Fox Searchlight Pictures
  • 2 h 12 m

The Dancer Upstairs

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 40 Critic Reviews
64
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary As a Latin American nation nears collapse under a highly organized terrorist movement, idealistic policeman Agustin Rejas (Bardem) faces the greatest challenge of his career: to catch the mysterious guerilla leader Ezequiel. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Directed By: John Malkovich

Written By: Nicholas Shakespeare

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 40 Critic Reviews
64
70% Positive
28 Reviews
30% Mixed
12 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 40 Critic Reviews
64
70% Positive
28 Reviews
30% Mixed
12 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
90
Patient and plodding -- but as realized by John Malkovich, in his directorial debut, utterly absorbing.
By Richard Schickel FULL REVIEW
80
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.
By Andrew O'Hehir FULL REVIEW
75
Bardem delivers the kind of performance the director might have given himself: subdued, thoughtful, wry, sometimes a bit too detached.
By Lawrence Toppman FULL REVIEW
70
Studded with terrorist attacks... Yet Malkovich never exploits these for action-movie thrills: in each instance the loss of life is terrible and the morality of the act is left treacherously ambiguous.
By J.R. Jones FULL REVIEW
63
A promising film rather than a fully realized one.
By Michael Wilmington FULL REVIEW
50
The only reason this dilemma has any import is thanks to Bardem, who almost single-handedly drags the film along.
By Desson Thomson FULL REVIEW
40
Falters in small but important ways -– the suspense, carefully ratcheted up throughout, just plain goes busto in the film’s final moments -– while Malkovich stays resolutely behind the camera, a consummate professional who, this time, misses his mark by the merest of degrees.
By Marc Savlov FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Fox Searchlight Pictures, Lolafilms, Mr. Mudd, Antena 3 Televisión, Vía Digital
Release Date May 2, 2003
Duration 2 h 12 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline An honest man caught in a world of intrigue, power and passion.
View All Details

Awards

Venice Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Chlotrudis Awards
• 1 Nomination
Political Film Society, USA
• 1 Nomination

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