MAO'S LAST DANCER Australian epic drama, directed by Bruce Beresford, starring Bruce Greenwood. 117 min. Rated 12A.

A giant hit at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, "Mao’s Last Dancer," by the great Australian director Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy"), is a feel-good film bursting with courage, energy and overwhelming inspiration. Based on the best-selling memoirs by dance sensation Li Cunxin, it is the epic saga of a poor Chinese peasant boy living during the dictatorship of Mao Tse-tung, who is plucked from a crude, one-room schoolhouse in the remote rural province of Shandong at age 11 and sent to ballet school at Madame Mao’s Dance Academy in Beijing, eventually becoming a principal dancer with the Houston Ballet and ending up a celebrated international star. Unbelievable but true, it is as entertaining as it is astounding. In the cherished tradition of heartbreaking movies about personal triumph against impossible odds, it is a combination of "Billy Elliot" and "Rocky." — Rex Reed, The New York Observer