Mao's Last Dancer

God help me I do love a good premiere. Don't judge. I like a little excitement, glitz and glamour. Sue me!

So, quite happily, I gave up the chance to see Shutter Island and toddle along to the premiere with a friend. A few stars, a few drinks, I was helpless really. (as a side note I'm desperate to see Shutter pretty soon though. Am hearing great things)

Mao's Last Dancer is a very special film. The story of a young boy growing up in Mao's China, plucked from his family at a young age to train in a national ballet school. After years in this oppressive, if eventually rewarding environment, he is discovered by a touring American ballet director and invited to visit the US as a guest dancer at the Houston Ballet.

It's a very simple story and, truth be told, a very simple film; one that sticks to the basics and has no aspirations of being grander than it is. As a result, it's incredibly powerful and moving. I know that both myself and my charming plus one had pools in our eyes during the gorgeous emotional climax.

I must confess that though a fan of the opera, classical music, the theatre, poetry... (basically anything considered upper-class and wanky) I have never really "gotten" ballet. That changed with this film. The beauty, elegance, strength, control and passion of the art shone through and I'm hoping to be able to attend a ballet-proper later this year.

The performances from Chi Cao as the grown up Li Cunxin and Bruce Greenwood as Ben Stevenson were excellent and true and both were superb casting choices.

This is not a film that will break box office records, but it is a film worthy of its ticket price and richly rewarding for those who attend.

__________

4 1/2 demi-pliés