Mao’s Last Dancer, the new film by Australian director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy), is this year’s Slumdog Millionaire — with a little Billy Elliot mixed in. The film, based on the autobiography of the same title, tells the true story of Li Cunxin, who was plucked from his rural peasant village as a child to be trained as a ballet dancer in Mao Zedong’s communist China. He dutifully navigated the years of training and the accompanying slogans of propaganda without any care for ballet because it was an escape from his inevitable fate as a peasant back home. But his talent garnered the faith of one of his teachers, and later caught the eye of American Ben Stevenson, then artistic director of the Houston Ballet. Li was brought to Houston on a scholarship and soon learned that the propaganda drilled into him by Mao’s China was full of lies. He was then faced with the choice of returning to his homeland or fighting to stay in the US, knowing his actions could send dire repercussions to his family in remote China. The film is peppered with fully produced ballet performances featuring Birmingham Royal Ballet principal dancer Chi Cao in his first acting role. The film is a well-crafted delight.
The story is a standard rags-to-riches tale with the added element of communist China. Joan Chen (The Last Emperor) and China’s acclaimed actor Wang Shuang Bao play Li’s parents who toil in their extremely poor circumstances until they learn the sixth of their seven sons has been chosen to go to Beijing. Mao Zedong’s China is played lightly, though not disingenuously. Allegiance propaganda is delivered throughout the film by teachers and government officials very matter-of-factly and without malice. No doubt the strength of these messages greatly affected Li’s life. However, the film refrains from using a heavy-handed approach. At one point in the film, Li’s school performs a traditional ballet for Madame Mao who complains that there are no guns and no promotion of the party message. The school regroups for her next visit and performs a new ballet complete with dancers in military uniform, wielding rifles and killing dissenters to her absolute delight.
Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) beautifully plays Stevenson, the UK transplant and Houston Ballet artistic director who discovers Li while on an artistic visit to China and brings him to Houston on a summer scholarship. Kyle MacLahlan (Desperate Housewives) plays Charles Foster, a foremost immigration law expert. The cast is rounded out with Amanda Schull (Center Stage) as a young dancer who steals Li’s heart, and dancers Madeleine Eastoe and Camilla Vergotis as Li’s dance partners throughout the various stages of his life.
I’m not sure whether it’s harder to teach a dancer to act than it is to teach an actor to dance. I would imagine no matter how hard it is, Beresford made the right choice in selecting Chi Cao to portray Li in the film. Chi skillfully plays the young and impressionable Li when he first arrives in Houston to immediately put the audience in his corner. The language and cultural barriers were well written and artfully executed by the cast to provide several sweet moments. Though three different actors play Li in the film, Chi’s role takes the longest journey from awkward, tentative teen to sophisticated, confident adult dancer.
The film features numerous performances choreographed by Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon, both formerly of the Sydney Dance Company. Though there feels to be too many dance sequences in the film, most are skillfully integrated into the story. The performances are captured with great care, seamlessly alternating from the framework of the film into the ballet itself and back again.
Overall, the film is a light, emotional journey that dramatizes the high points of Li’s life very well. Those under 25 may not have heard of Mao Zedong, but Mao’s Last Dancer is clearly laid out enough for them to enjoy it. The film opens in limited release this Friday.
Limité Rating: 4/5
Director: Bruce Beresford
Writer: Jan Sardi
Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen, Wang Shuang, Amanda Schull, Chi Cao, Aden Young
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 117 min.
Release Date: August 20, 2010 (limited)
