The Dancer Upstairs 2002

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: Smart, upmarket entertainment. Read more

Ty Burr, 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. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Reflects its director, being intelligent and elegantly turned-out but distant. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It thrives on the hush before the explosion instead of its aftermath, and it's that eerie sense of expectation that gives the film its thick aura of suspense. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... a terrific film. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A promising film rather than a fully realized one, an ambitious but cloudy tale through which the warm rays of a luminous intelligence and sympathy occasionally glint. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: A stoic tease of a movie. But it is a worthy effort because Mr. Malkovich proves his devotion to actors, lingering on them during moments of silence. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A welcome throwback to a time when political thrillers relied more on character and tone than on car chases and gun battles. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Here, the urgent question of how an individual maintains his humanity when his paychecks are cut by a government every bit as corrupt as its terrorist outlaws isn't the stuff of abstract speculation but a matter of life, death and honest screen thrills. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Moving, melancholy, and, yes, political. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The movie has a mystery, and moral unease, that lingers. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Atmospheric but dramatically murky, a mood in search of a story. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: A labor of love hobbled by a stubborn desire to eke its delicate love story out of a premise that all but sits up and begs to be treated as a political thriller. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Javier Bardem is terrific, as usual, in a film that hovers between genres, albeit with considerable grace. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Bardem, the star of The Dancer Upstairs, is that rare modern performer who personifies heroism. Read more

Bob Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger: Sheer wooliness undermines the sober political stance of John Malkovich's overexcited directorial debut. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: It's sober, deliberate, self-consciously mysterious and no fun at all. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Little other than the love story subplot to energize the proceedings, many viewers will find that, for all its grace, The Dancer Upstairs moves too slowly. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It moves with a compelling intensity toward its conclusion. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: 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. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: An adult piece of work, made up mainly of quiet, emotional scenes and detailed performances. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: What could have been a routine cop-vs.-killer melodrama instead becomes a character-rich, substantial film with important insights about love, justice and honor. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: After an initially engrossing start, it stumbles through a series of implausible coincidences and murky events, barely held together by the magnetic performance of Javier Bardem. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: As a man struggling to carve a moral path through thickets of corruption and violence, the Spanish actor Javier Bardem holds the centre of John Malkovich's directorial-debut like a magnetic core. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: It is really quite wonderful, in the age of hyperkinetic thrillers, to encounter a movie that takes the time to record the play of thought and emotion in its characters, to let their conflicts develop in a natural and unforced way. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Bardem ... marvelously underplays here as a man getting resigned to lifelong weariness in both his personal and professional lives. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Initially engrossing, The Dancer Upstairs slackens in its second half. Read more