A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It could have been a soft erotic film but Besson made it a hardcore lovely fairy tale that can mesmerize you by bringing together opposed and contradictory elements, de-multiplying a Romeo and Juliet fable into a criss cross of antagonisms and happy endings. A mute dancer is the best dancer of them all and yet she is refused in an audition because she is mute. What about that as for segregation? She is black and managed by her brother who is an artist, and a successful one what's more, at antagonizing others, being fired and having his friends fired. What about that as for a chip on his shoulder? Then she is seen and at once adopted by a young scientist, Isaac, who is trying to create a mechanical system that would turn bodily movement into music and a dance into a symphony. What about that as for body language? And she accepts to cross the racial divide, the cultural divide, the sexual divide and a few other divides to do it! And the world does not stop, does not roar, does not kill any one. What about that as for optimism! Luc Besson must believe the world has improved and cooperation is possible beyond, over and across any divide at all, which makes this film charming indeed, even if not the turning point in imagination that will bring the new world that is possible into being. Luc Besson is in no way a politician and his dreaming tomorrow's world is hard enough a task for him to be satisfied with the smile of his dancer and the grin of his scientist.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

As an electronic musician and admirer of dancers (especially body expressionist like Mia)I enjoyed this movie. Simple and warm story of perfect-but-not-so-perfect glory-chaser India with the most beautiful eyes in the world, great beats and body language,ups and downs, disappointments with the people and their conservativism and an evidence that it has sense to make something from the heart, to express, to be what you feel, and to believe in your goals and your ways of reaching them. It gives you great and warm feeling inside and it reminds you of what a human being means.

I just read a review that told me the female lead, star of this movie, was a dancer in real life. I'm no dancing machine, but she just didn't dance very well in this movie. Her moves looked exactly the same as all the extras who were in the movie. She just got framed a little more properly. At least choreograph something a little more interesting. For a movie about a dancer whose entire life was about dancing and mesmerizing others with her moves, she was wildy wildy wildy average. Don't expect any Janet Jackson or even Britney Spears. Expect the cool girl at a party somewhere in some college kid's parents' summer home. Another big complaint was the direction. This director, another protege of Luc Besson, did not know the American culture very well, or Americans very well, nevermind the subculture of hiphop. His car-commerical type green-and-red tone looked totally out of place. Many interesting cuts and wild camera movements, but added nothing to the movie. The way he filmed the actors, especially black actors, was very obvious through a foreigner's gaze. People looked objectified. And many sets in the movie--the audition studios, the clubs, the streets of New York, all looked like exaggerated versions of sets from other American movies. The director probably has never been to very many hip clubs. And nevermind the science labs. The sci-fi elements of this movie was grade-b tv material. It was offered late in the movie as some kind of cheap deus ex-machina. So a mute girl can't get respect as a dancer because she's mute, what does she do? Oh, just turn to a scientist whose new advice can turn your moves into post-new age electronic music that sounds like retreads from The Fifth Element (oh yeah, of course, and a little Bjork here and there just to be safe.)The music and the images at no point of time really connected, it shows how far we've gone from those MGM musicals movies where the lines may be crappy and the filmmakers may be racist, but at least the dance sequences were good. Or 10 years ago when Michael Jackson was still making music videos.But the movie is harmless, its visual is pretty smooth so you can turn off the sound and just kinda stare at it, kinda like a really colorful lava lamp. If you must watch it, it probably won't kill you.

I dont know why it had a rating that low (5.3). I think its a good film. Very energetic dancing scenes, emotional scenes (in the restaurant, in the subway, etc). Good acting from the girl. Bad: mainstream representation of the "scientist" ("i'm a scientist" / typical nerd).