|
|
Detective Rejas searches for Ezequiel, the mysterious leader responsible for dogs strung to lampposts bearing cryptic messages, children delivering bombs, and young girls risking their own lives to kill military leaders. In one scene a theater group pulls several people from the audience and shoots them, a chillingly elaborate attack that is all the more eerie given the recent tragedy in a Russian theater. The scenes of terror are a topic that audiences in the U.S. can relate to on a visceral and emotional level now that they don't happen "somewhere else". Having left his life as a lawyer, Rejas now works for an agency that is corrupt and that rarely pays him on time, if at all. His character is between worlds. On one hand he is married to a Barbie doll of a wife who peddles books, beauty products and other goods at wive's club meetings, while he also speaks Quechua fluently and comes from the countryside. The terror sweeping the country means that the couple escapes further into their own interests and we never really see them as a couple. Rejas finds some sort of solace and love in Yolanda (Laura Morante), his daughter's spirited dance teacher. Bardem, after his brilliant turn in Before Night Falls, creates a deeply complex character who ultimately is not conflicted. He knows what he must do and he will do it. He's able to convey an old-fashioned trust in those around him and in the audience. He's the good guy, but he's certainly not perfect. He's idealist to a fault. His sad eyes observe everything wrong with his country, but see beyond it. In one scene he comes across a young terrorist, a girl, with half of her head blown off. He tries to comfort her, and her last action is to throw blood into his face. While not making excuses for terrorist acts, Rejas is well aware of the conditions that have led to their creation. Part of his character's charm lies in his sardonic delivery that in the midst of depressing circumstances continues to harbor hope. Over and over, Malkovich shows the life of someone who is smart enough to be doing something more glamorous and more lucrative. By virtue of Rejas's peripatetic lifestyle, we see him at home in the capital and high in the mountains when he returns to his family's coffee plantation (that was confiscated by the military and left in ruins, incidentally). He gets his information about Ezequiel from Indians on buses, picking through garbage, talking with Indian children and by chance. Like Frida, the use of English for a movie set in Latin America with Latin American characters certainly has its debates for and against. I think one quality the film possesses is that by being in English it brings U.S. audiences closer to South America. However the sound quality was not always so good and it was difficult to hear the dialogue at times, very distressing given the fact that it's so intelligent. Malkovich also deftly sketches how a leader's mystique is born. It's seen in the whispering of sightings and cryptic messages as well as through violence, threats and using the most vulnerable segment of the population to do the dirty work. When a child working for Ezequiel is caught and threatened with death, the child replies "I'm already dead". When Ezequiel is caught, he's nothing more than an old man wearing a cardigan. Some scenes in The Dancer Upstairs may be shocking for those who simply want to catch and kill every terrorist. Malkovich shows that it's much more complicated than that when the heart is involved.
 |
|
