Hyper-earnest and less than half good, Mao’s Last Dancer puts a biopic gloss on a bumpy journey, that traveled by Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin from Maoist China to the Houston Ballet Company in the early 1980’s. That gloss, a product of director Bruce Beresford’s constitutional timidity toward his more provocatively chosen subjects, hardens to a kind of reflective coat that is worn most glaringly by the film’s protagonist. By the end of 117 minutes we know the big-ticket plot points and that Li — here played by dancer and first-time actor Chi Cao — can dance like an angel, but as a man with a psychologically and emotionally motivated life he remains almost completely elusive.
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REVIEW: Ballet is the Star in Otherwise Uninspired Mao’s Last Dancer
