The Dancer Upstairs

Javier Bardem and Juan Diego Botto star in this slow, curious, sometimes subtle, sometimes violent film.

Bardem is an underated and relatively unknown actor in the States. In his homeland of Spain he rivals Banderas as that nation's film icon. He has been in film since the age of 4. I think this is the first time I've heard Javier Bardem even speak English. The other films I've seen him in, Pedro Almadovar's Live Flesh and Before Night Falls were both in Spanish.

The Dancer Upstairs takes place in some unknown Latin American city. There is a revolution brewing. An unseen, shadowy anarchist, Ezekiel, is picking off members of the established government one at a time and he's using cult indoctrinated women and children to do his dirty work. Bardem is part of the local authority investigating the crimes, Botto is his right hand. Bardem and Botto investigate each one of these incidents, never accumulating important information until a random set of events allows Bardem a critical clue that leads him to Ezekiel's identity.

I laughed out loud when El Presidente stops his car and rolls down his bullet-proof window to oogle three young girls in Catholic girls gone bad outfits. Um, Senor Presidente, don't you find it odd that those girls in the short plaid skirts and thigh high white stockings are just standing around your gated complex? Oh my, what do they have in their skirts? Are those 357, nickle plated, high performance revolvers? Why yes they are! Silly El Presidente!

Bardem has a boring marriage, his wife's only passion is in selling cosmetics. An irony in the face of martial law and a rapidly disappearing government. Bardem, in the course of the investigation, develops an affair with his daughter's ballet teacher, a seemingly dainty flower who is afraid of the dark. Bardem goes to great lengths to protect the dancer. But when is the cost too great? Bardem makes some unbelievable choices in the name of love.

The music that runs through this film is eery and appropriate, I kinda liked it. Its sometimes jazz-blues ala Etta James and sometimes reminiscent of Argentine Tango.

Good film, definitely rent worthy on a night of introspection but not Bardem's best. I still think his best is Before Night Falls, the gut-wrenching true story of Cubano novelist, Reinaldo Arenas.