The White Crow

This look at the ballet superstar, Rudolf Nureyev, concentrates on his visit at 22 to Paris as part of the Kirov ballet, culminating in a dramatic defection at the airport. And the sequence which actually shows this defection is quite gripping. But it’s a ten-fifteen minute climax to a film that is otherwise pretty unfocused. The ballet performed here is skilled, certainly, but it’s not electric, magnetic, and while the biographical details are all here (if jumbled in a weird mess of flashbacks and sideplots), it only briefly builds up much momentum. Raiph Finnes plays Nureyev’s mentor in a quiet reserved manner and that unfortunately applies to a lot of his directing as well. It’s a film that needed fire and passion, and instead it’s largely damp and remote. A disappointment.