Critic Reviews
49
Metascore
Mixed or Average
positive
4(36%)
mixed
5(45%)
negative
2(18%)
Showing 11 Critic Reviews
90
A fervent assertion that an individual has the right to pursue his own path lies at the vibrant heart of The Business of Fancydancing.
75
Offers a quixotic array of characters and flashbacks that tests patience, but once the viewer understand the movie's cadence and rhythm, the story gets better and better until it builds into a crescendo that's emotional, dramatic and -- best of all, perhaps -- fitting.
67
The anger and betrayal hanging in the wake of shattered relationships and conflicted identities leave an admirable untidiness where most films would force resolution. There are no easy answers here, and it's not for lack of questions.
63
Shot in digital video, Fancydancing feels a bit like a racy after-school special. Performances are amateurishly uneven.
60
Stalled character development in the second half of the pic reduces the impact of the whole.
60
Although the film is initially clumsy and a little hard to follow, Mr. Alexie takes his time in setting his characters in play, and the visual clunkiness becomes secondary to the eloquent emotional desolation.
50
While The Business of Fancydancing is a thoughtful and complex work of sound and vision, it doesn't seem quite right to call it a film, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is plainly, if crisply, shot on video, with a bright, shiny surface that fairly screams low-rent. Second, the whole business is strangely non-cinematic.
40
All too often, dramatic confrontations feel like barely dramatized debates.
40
Seymour returns to the Spokane Indian Reservation after a 16-year absence for a friend's funeral. The predictable conflicts ensue, often in histrionic dialogue declaimed through clenched teeth.
38
The movie eventually chokes on its own pretensions.
