The Dancer

I was really impressed with this feature. It is very much a simple visual treat, and an emotional and inspiring story.

India is an exceptionally talented dancer living with her brother and scarcely making ends meet. She is a mute and encounters various problems in her daily life and also in gaining employment as a dancer. This is a well acted and beautifully shot film. Jarrod Bunch in particular gives real gravity to the marginal character Bruno, makes him seem like a real person! It holds a European flavour but fits in the New York mould perfectly. I suggest that this will be enjoyed by most folk. It's a triumph of the human spirit film, without cheese. It is in a word exceptional.

As an electronic musician and admirer of dancers (especially body expressionist like Mia)I enjoyed this movie. Simple and warm story of perfect-but-not-so-perfect glory-chaser India with the most beautiful eyes in the world, great beats and body language,ups and downs, disappointments with the people and their conservativism and an evidence that it has sense to make something from the heart, to express, to be what you feel, and to believe in your goals and your ways of reaching them. It gives you great and warm feeling inside and it reminds you of what a human being means.

If we consider ourselves as "quite" serious movie reviewers, we must acknowledge the fact that a movie tells a story - that's what it's supposed to do.

Just like action movies - dance movies traditionally run short of a story to make room for the action, uhm, dancing. This is an important background fact to review this movie.

I also have to admit that I don't really like dance movies - I never saw the necessity to push a story with dancing scenes - Indian movies rely heavily on it and even in western movies some productions have reached the point where the story is, well, the gap filler between the dancing. And that would rather make for a "performance flick" than an actual movie.

Luc Besson tries really hard to makes this one stand out. He gives the protagonist characteristics that make her very special. He adds characters that really try to propel a story. The settings are great, the sound is mostly awesome and avantgardly cool, the camera and editing is (of course) Bessonesque deluxe - so what's there to complain?

Let's jump back to the beginning of my review. Even though there is a lot of substance compared to other dance movies - in the end it's a dance movie and the crucial part is the final performance, like in any other dance movie. And that, unfortunately, makes it very predictable and prototypical.

It makes me a little bit sad as you can tell that everybody here is working so hard to make this movie stand out as something different. As a performance flick this is probably one of the best and most original I've seen - but unfortunately as a movie it's only average.

"The Dancer" Movie that I know is about a young lady, India who is mute and a great dancer. The movie is about the strong relationship between India and her brother Jasper and what affect a scientist who helps to change her life has on there sister/brother bond. Rudy, the cousin of Jasper and India adds a unique dose of comedy that shows what type of life these city youngsters have to deal with everyday.

This movie belongs in the group of movies that people watch not only for a story (or in spite of the story) but for the dancing. Mia Frye is inspirational. I watched this movie with my 5 year old daughter and it gave her lots of dance ideas which she added to her repertoire (as best she could). It's not classic ballet or choreographed Broadway Musical stuff, but a bit more wild, more basic and definitely electrifying.

The story line is not bad either. If you've seen "Children of a Lesser God" and had a connection with that plot, you might get a connection with this one. Without writing any details to spoil the story, I thought there were a few provocative twists dealing with communication and "being creative" as a mute. One was the Dancer's ability to engage a class of children without speaking (her part time job). The job discrimination part of the plot was realistic and educational. And in particular the synergy between a geek with a crush and the artist, well it was sweet, without being too sappy and ended in a fairly provocative finale. Not an action movie, most guys would probably label it a chick flick, but might like it for the sexuality in the dance numbers.

I've been trying to purchase it but have had a lot of difficulty finding it. I found a place out of Hong Kong, but then you get tangled up in the DVD region coding system.