In a Latin American country with more than a passing resemblance to Fujimori-era Peru, a new political force announces itself overnight, adorning the capital's street lamps with dead dogs stuffed with dynamite and bearing placards hailing "Presidente Ezequiel." More animals carrying explosives follow, and bomb-carrying children aren't far behind. Each night, the streets come alive with color-coded fireworks, and occasionally with kids carrying posters of Ezequiel's eyes. What their leader stands for, other than revolution in general, all the psychological warfare never reveals. But with such a command of public relations, who needs ideas? The Dancer Upstairs, on the other hand, could use some. Nicholas Shakespeare, who wrote the screenplay and the novel upon which it's based, served as a reporter during Peru's manhunt for the leader of the Maoist terrorist group Shining Path. Though the film effectively conveys the unease of a country that could tip any day toward unforgiving dictatorship or a violent coup, it remains curiously disengaged from the politics of the situation, or their human toll. In his debut behind the camera, up-and-coming director John Malkovich (who also reportedly has some ambitions in the acting arena) displays a fine eye for a memorable shot, a delicate hand with actors, and a chilling command of cinematic violence. All those skills should feed nicely into Dancer's violent scenario, which makes it all the more puzzling that Malkovich commits so much of the film to a familiar, though hard-to-follow, police procedural. Good thing he has Javier Bardem to fill in spaces otherwise left blank. A lawyer turned detective, Bardem is an honest man in a country where corruption has become a part of everyday life, and his eyes suggest a moral tenacity that no amount of disillusion can wear away. Bardem's performance survives the vagaries of an extramarital romance with a dance instructor (Laura Morante) that never really takes root, as well as the machinations of a plot that inches him toward his Captain Kurtz without stopping to take in the scenery when the scenery should matter more than the destination. Though he never quite rescues the film, Bardem continually suggests the tensions bubbling under the surface that Dancer itself never penetrates.