Sooooo I just watched 'Mao's Last Dancer', a film I had been anticipating and couldn't wait to see. Disappointing. The script and acting were uniformly bad but I don't believe the latter was the fault of the actors: the Script (by Jan Sardi) was sooooooo trite and corny that it robbed the story (which is a goodie) of any impact whatsoever. I felt that had the story been told by Chen Kaige or some other Chinese director, it would have had more meaning. As it was, Sardi's heavyhanded script, reliant on such devices as fart jokes and fish-out-of-water misunderstandings of language, was like fingernails on a blackboard. Li Cunxin was an extraordinary dancer and the dancing segments were good to look at but his personal discipline and fortitude really were given scant attention.
The acting was hampered by the fact that all American fakes (including Penne Hackforth Jones) were caricatures with terrible accents including Jack THompson's cameo as a judge who saves the day. Just get an American for Pete's sake and write lines that echo the cadence of American speech!!!
But one thing was intriguing: the set for the Stravinsky ballet (choreog. Graeme Murphy) and the device of the flame flashing up the shards was IDENTICAL to David Atkins' Opening and closing central motif. Given that David has always been a central part of Sydney's modern dance scene, this may not have been a coincidence. But if I had been the set director, I would have asked for a credit in Vancouver. Or maybe not... after all, it failed to function there!
Peter James' cinematography was spot-on and you could see he had a lot of budget-coverups to achieve.
I was just so disappointed in this overall production and annoyed that such a good story was completely squandered by what has become the Sardi stamp of corniness. As with "Shine" (Dir.: Scott Hicks, 1996), the hero was made out to have no warts and the lack of rounding of his character made for an annoying, flat as a tack story which, for me, could not be covered up by the dancing. The saturation of dance events and shows on our screens at the moment also means that we are so accustomed to seeing footwork and line covered well, that it is hard to tolerate anything that misses the chance to go for art rather than workmanlike coverage.
But, hey! It is way better than some of the films out of Australia over past years.
