Bruce Beresford's "Mao's Last Dancer" tells the kind of inspirational true-life story that seems made for the movies.
Li Cunxin (played by three actors as the character ages from child to teenager to man) was a talented young dancer in Mao's China, plucked from his poor rural family at age 11 to train at the Beijing Dance Academy.
In 1979, still in his teens, he came to America as part of a cultural exchange, to dance with the Houston Ballet - and, not long afterward, boldly defected to the United States, knowing he might never see his parents and homeland again.
Though some of the acting and writing feels a little flat, this adventurous life seems to cry out for more energy in its depiction. "Mao's Last Dancer" is an appealing and, by its end, quite moving film. We watch Li fall in love with dance (as a teenager, he said he didn't understand or like ballet), with a beautiful young American dancer (Amanda Schull) and with life in the West. He practices pirouettes by candlelight, whipping his turns so quickly the candle goes out, and he dances a passionate "Swan Lake," giving new meaning to the idea that a swan can transform itself, far from its home.
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Chi Cao, of England's Birmingham Royal Ballet, plays Li as an adult; he's a serviceable actor and a fine dancer who blazes through the ballet sequences like there's fire under his feet.
Shame on Beresford, though, for botching some otherwise lovely dances with the cheesy insertion of slow-mo. At the end, Chi performs a final, emotional pas de deux in an unexpected setting, dancing in the wind like a leaf; there's no need for flashy camera work, as he's already a truly special effect.
Review
Mao's Last Dancer
***
• Rated: PG for a brief violent image, some sensuality, language and incidental smoking
• Director: Bruce Beresford.
• Cast: Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan.
• Running time: 117 minutes.
