TinyPliny

I spotted Dancing without Borders in my local library because of its absolutely stunning cover: a graceful yet somehow fierce young man in an impossibly high leap across a lush green canvas with Philip Glass playing on a grand piano in the background. It was too striking to ignore. I had never heard of the film before and watched it with no expectations and absolutely no idea about the characters.

The storyline was very simple. A wealthy US dance patron spots a talented Cambodian dancer in a remote village and finances his ballet training in NYC. A ballet super-star is born. But don't be fooled by the simplicity of the story. Dancing across Borders is a very compelling film from start to finish. I just couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Every little sequence is beautifully shot and perfectly narrated. Simplicity can sometimes be very powerful. Dancing Across Borders is a perfect example of just how powerfully artistic story-telling can transform a seemingly simple story into a complex multi-layered tale of the charmed life of Sokvannara "Sy" Sar

The alien nature of ballet as a dance form to Sy is matched by his unfamiliarity with English as a language and compounded by the culture shock of living alone in the US, without any family and very far away from home. The film documents his journey through this absolutely bewildering maze of unique challenges. It weaves its way through his initial shaky steps in ballet (which were incidentally shot just to video-document his progress during dance lessons and not really meant for this film) and showcases his sheer dedication to the dance and his single-minded determination to be better.

The film has this inherent lyricism about how it presents the story. Cambodian as well as western classical music is used extensively to transition between Cambodia and the US. Ballet music adapted for the piano is always quite amazing and the movie has these piano pieces by the spadefuls. Sy's ballet competition and stage performances are beautifully woven into the film and you can actually see how he gradually gets better at the dance form.

Overall, I recommend this film to everyone with an interest in ballet, photography, classical music, any dance or just story-telling. It's a fine showcase for all of these. It's a documentary but is more watchable and fun than most dramatized works of fiction.

Couldn't make it through 30 minutes of this utter trash of a movie. Acting is terrible. Where did they pick up this lot? Why Why WHY pray, is the talented Olivia Colman sharing the screen with these insipid hacks??! It was as if everyone had memorized their lines but were dead tired by the time the shoot rolled around. The characters are all uniformly despicable and I just wanted to throw things (preferably rotten and slushy) at them.

And the plot, you ask? It has been done to death a million times in better movies and better shows with supremely better actors. If you are feeling inclined to watch it just because the plot sounds remotely interesting, STOP. Pick up "Lucky Seven" instead.

Why is this even called a romantic comedy? There is nothing romantic in being socially malicious because you put too much faith in pseudo-pop- statistics from Vogue and nothing comic in the interminable boredom this movie indifferently nudges you into.

Everyone apart from Olivia Colman might just as well be made of wood and stuck on the wall - that's how uninteresting they are. Maybe the lead actress should stick to the runway and not return to the screen AT ALL. If there had been a rating below 1 star, I would have readily chosen it. Since there is no such option, the one lone star goes to Michael Bublé whose heartfelt track "Lost" is misused in this shoddy piece of work.

Bottomline: This is bottom of the barrel fare. Avoid, unless you are a rabid fan of Olivia Colman and have developed an effective way to block out the rest of the abomination of a cast and ignore the vapid excuse for a plot. Ugh.