In 1981, ballet dancer Li Cunxin defected to the United States after a lifetime of training in the People’s Republic of China. Twenty-eight years later, his autobiography was adapted by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) and became one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time...too bad it wasn’t a better movie.
Mired by stolid direction and unimaginative filmmaking, Mao’s Last Dancer emotionlessly spells out its themes and plots in such a way that even its occasional dips into melodrama fail to evoke the eye-rolls they deserve. Much of the film unfolds in flashback, detailing Li’s childhood in an unnamed village of northeastern China and his adolescent training in Beijing.
Played as a teenager by Australian Ballet dancer Chengwu Guo and an adult by Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Chi Cao, Li struggles with a lack of talent and must instead develop his skills through sheer...
Mired by stolid direction and unimaginative filmmaking, Mao’s Last Dancer emotionlessly spells out its themes and plots in such a way that even its occasional dips into melodrama fail to evoke the eye-rolls they deserve. Much of the film unfolds in flashback, detailing Li’s childhood in an unnamed village of northeastern China and his adolescent training in Beijing.
Played as a teenager by Australian Ballet dancer Chengwu Guo and an adult by Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Chi Cao, Li struggles with a lack of talent and must instead develop his skills through sheer...
- 5/5/2011
- Shadowlocked
Chicago – World-renowned dancer Li Cunxin’s autobiography, “Mao’s Last Dancer,” has been transformed into the type of unimaginative, sentimental tear-jerker that will only move viewers who’ve never seen (or heard of) a movie before. It doesn’t adapt Li’s autobiography so much as stage the SparkNotes version.
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Though director Bruce Beresford once proved to have a gift for exploring intimate character studies on the order of “Tender Mercies” and “Driving Miss Daisy,” he’s clearly made this picture entirely on autopilot. It hurries through all the key moments in Li’s life until the audience is faced with title cards explaining what happened to people that we hardly knew. Remember the scene in “Inception” where Ellen Page wonders how she got to the cafe? That’s how every scene feels in “Mao’s Last Dancer,” since Jan Sardi’s script fails to sufficiently develop every character and plot arc,...
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Though director Bruce Beresford once proved to have a gift for exploring intimate character studies on the order of “Tender Mercies” and “Driving Miss Daisy,” he’s clearly made this picture entirely on autopilot. It hurries through all the key moments in Li’s life until the audience is faced with title cards explaining what happened to people that we hardly knew. Remember the scene in “Inception” where Ellen Page wonders how she got to the cafe? That’s how every scene feels in “Mao’s Last Dancer,” since Jan Sardi’s script fails to sufficiently develop every character and plot arc,...
- 8/20/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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