With a clever Graham-Greene-esque script, choice acting by the whole ensemble (especially Bardem), fine music by Alberto Iglesias, and the strong directorial control of Malkovich, the film zips along.

| Jul 19, 2018

The Dancer Upstairs is intelligently scripted, beautifully photographed, nicely paced and well-acted.

| Dec 6, 2014

The Dancer Upstairs is, like its director, sleek, mysterious and intelligent. But until its last-half hour or so, it is also, unfortunately, mind-numbing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 23, 2003

Falters in small but important ways ... while Malkovich stays resolutely behind the camera, a consummate professional who, this time, misses his mark by the merest of degrees.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 18, 2003

It is not revolutionary, but it brims with promise and a love of film, and is a fine if worried dance indeed.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | May 16, 2003

Moving, melancholy, and, yes, political.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 16, 2003

Reflects its director, being intelligent and elegantly turned-out but distant.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 16, 2003

Delivers a haunting story of crime and passion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2003

A welcome throwback to a time when political thrillers relied more on character and tone than on car chases and gun battles.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | May 15, 2003

A slow-burning affair that may seem exotic but mainly crawls from cliche to cliche.

Full Review | May 9, 2003

It's not a great film, but in its reckless audacity ... it's reassuring. Someone's still willing to take a big chance.

Full Review | May 9, 2003

The film may strike some viewers as slow-paced -- it certainly struck me that way, at least some of the time -- but it's a pleasure seeing actors, particularly Bardem, given time to breathe.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 9, 2003

An adult piece of work, made up mainly of quiet, emotional scenes and detailed performances.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 9, 2003

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.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 9, 2003

An elegant and intelligent drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 8, 2003

Smart, upmarket entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 8, 2003

From this tangled web, Malkovich weaves something delicate and devastating.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 8, 2003

Atmospheric but dramatically murky, a mood in search of a story.

| Original Score: C+ | May 8, 2003

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.

| May 7, 2003

Malkovich is more interested in hitting notes of elegiac lyricism than delivering socko action; this is a thriller that means to get under your skin rather than make you leap from your seat.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 6, 2003