A biographical drama following the first trip to the West of the Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
An interesting, challenging mess. The White Crow offers lots that’s impressive — Ivenko as Nureyev, the dance sequences, a knuckle-whitening last 20 minutes — but can’t render it in a dramatically engaging way.
Fiennes' light touch textures this biopic into something exciting, genuine and naturally sexy; it's a film that stays en pointe for its entirety.
The film isn’t without dramatic tension in the final stretch, but as far as inhabiting the “unusual, extraordinary [and] not like others,” it’s stuck at the bar.
This retelling of Rudolf Nureyev’s escape to the west survives some flat acting thanks to David Hare’s nuanced script.
Fiennes combines thriller elements with poetic flashbacks in this film about Russian dancers.
Ballet dancer Oleg Ivanko looks the part in Ralph Fiennes’ by-the-numbers biopic of Rudolph Nureyev, but the problems start when he has to deliver lumpen lines from David Hare.
A fitfully impressive take on the life of Rudolf Nureyev lacks the rhythm of the great dancer.
Ralph Fiennes on The White Crow: 'It was always about this moment of choice in 1961'.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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