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 poverty-stricken 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 ballet and didn’t like it), 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.
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- motion. 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.
“mao’s last dancer”
PG for brief violent image, some sensuality, language and incidental smoking. 1 hour, 57 minutes. Starring Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen and Amanda Schull; directed by Bruce Beresford. Opens today at Chez Artiste.
