Mao's Last Dancer Reviews
September 15, 2020
It's easy to understand why Sardi compresses the story, however, the compression leaves the film's dramatic arc at times feeling rushed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4.0
January 14, 2020
The ballet sequences are beautifully choreographed and a treat to be savored. You'll view Li's progression as an international artist as he becomes one of the best ballet dancers in the world.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
November 6, 2019
Powerfully compelling and passionate, MAO'S LAST DANCER is a celebration of the human spirit, aiming for the heart and hitting it every time.
October 2, 2013
a sweeping story that has many ups and downs, with some pretty noticeable changes in tone and pace
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
February 18, 2012
Full Review
| Original Score: B
January 31, 2011
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
December 24, 2010
Missteps prevent ballet drama from reaching great heights.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5
October 15, 2010
...somehow makes the extraordinary true story it's based on seem like common corn while succeeding in modest ways.
Full Review
| Original Score: 86/100
October 12, 2010
Woefully creaky and corny.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
October 8, 2010
The script is far too melodramatic, and the performances ... are hamfisted and overwrought.
Original Score: 2/4
September 30, 2010
Mao's Last Dancer is such a profoundly moving story, it's hard not to get drawn in as Li must decide how much he's willing to sacrifice for his American dream.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
September 29, 2010
Debuting actor Chi Cao's athleticism is the movie's most striking element.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
September 24, 2010
Ballet is kinda like ice hockey. It's more impressive when you're up close at the real deal. When you're 30 yards away, the snap of a slipper after a 90-lb ballerina lands a glissade is just as impressive as a 290-lb hockey goon hitting the boards.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
September 23, 2010
Mao's Last Dancer is an epic tale of love and betrayal, triumph and heartbreak, that captures the real-life drama and emotion of one man's search for freedom. Well, it almost is.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
September 23, 2010
Whenever Beresford concerns himself with politics or, even worse, personal drama, Dancer falls limply to the ground.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
September 21, 2010
Bruce Beresford's biopic of Li Cunxin, the Chinese ballet dancer who defected while on a student visa in Houston in 1981, is sometimes the movie equivalent of Oscar Meyer cold cuts. But the dancing is pure caviar.
September 10, 2010
The movie works, thanks in large part to Chi's performance.
Original Score: 3/4
September 10, 2010
Feel-good movie about a Chinese dancer presses all the right buttons.
September 10, 2010
Let the trumpets blare for artistic freedom of expression that is perfectly reflected in this uplifting and moving biopic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
September 9, 2010
Beresford knows the only way to deal with schmaltz is to just go ahead and embrace it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5