Recently I read Bruce Beresford’s book ‘Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To Do This... True Life Stories From A Life In The Screen Trade’. It was an excellent book which is a diary of a year in his life. He spends most of the book telling of how hard it is to get a job as he is constantly waiting for money to come for the various projects he is involved in. It makes you wonder how movies get made sometimes. So in some ways its amazed this got made.
I was also amazed at how many people told me they had read the book when this film came out. I had not heard of the book or Li Cunxin before the film came out. Now don’t get me wrong the story is very inspiring and uplifting but I was a bit disappointed by its lack of menace. I got the impression that Li was treated badly in his life but he wasn’t treated all that bad except for not being allowed to extend his stay in the USA and only then is he held in the consulate for a day or two and then let go. I thought he may have been ill treated at the ballet school in China and forcefully taken away from his family but not so. The film is also told in a fairly conventional way. No great flair or interesting techniques used to tell the story. I was expecting more from Bruce. I’m not much of a ballet fan either so the dancing did not really interest me all that much. It may sound like I did not like the film but it was good, maybe not as thrilling as I’d have liked or expected. Despite that I still had a good cry at the end so the story must have affected me in some way.
Chi Cao is excellent as the adult Li. I believe he was chosen more for his dancing abilities than his acting abilities. But that kind of works in his favour as it means he is more effective at portraying a nervous foreigner. Bruce Greenwood is good as Li’s American friend. Joan Chen is also wonderful as Li’s mother.
I think I had very different expectations from this film that were not met. Most people will enjoy it, especially those who read the book. It is already the most popular Aussie film this year so it must be doing something right.
I was also amazed at how many people told me they had read the book when this film came out. I had not heard of the book or Li Cunxin before the film came out. Now don’t get me wrong the story is very inspiring and uplifting but I was a bit disappointed by its lack of menace. I got the impression that Li was treated badly in his life but he wasn’t treated all that bad except for not being allowed to extend his stay in the USA and only then is he held in the consulate for a day or two and then let go. I thought he may have been ill treated at the ballet school in China and forcefully taken away from his family but not so. The film is also told in a fairly conventional way. No great flair or interesting techniques used to tell the story. I was expecting more from Bruce. I’m not much of a ballet fan either so the dancing did not really interest me all that much. It may sound like I did not like the film but it was good, maybe not as thrilling as I’d have liked or expected. Despite that I still had a good cry at the end so the story must have affected me in some way.
Chi Cao is excellent as the adult Li. I believe he was chosen more for his dancing abilities than his acting abilities. But that kind of works in his favour as it means he is more effective at portraying a nervous foreigner. Bruce Greenwood is good as Li’s American friend. Joan Chen is also wonderful as Li’s mother.
I think I had very different expectations from this film that were not met. Most people will enjoy it, especially those who read the book. It is already the most popular Aussie film this year so it must be doing something right.
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