The Dancer Upstairs

Actor John Malkovich made his directorial debut with this tense political thriller, set in an unnamed Latin American nation and based on a novel by Nicholas Shakespeare. Agustin Rejas (Javier Bardem) is a former lawyer who became a police detective as a more direct way of dealing with crime and ...more

John Malkovich's debut as a feature-film director is a combination of political thriller, police procedural, and love story. Slow and methodical, the film fares better at developing mood (with considerable help from cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine, who seems fond of dim lighting) than with building suspense or political commentary. Indeed, the film's terrorist organization remains an enigma even though the screenplay, which was adapted by Nicholas Shakespeare from his novel, was inspired by ...more