Somewhat dull Russian film touches on a few poignant topics centering around a young orphan's adoption dilemma, but rarely achieves the emotional pull it should have. Mainly taking place inside and around an aging orphanage, the initial introduction to the gentle dynamics inside this home feel mediocre at best. Whether most performances lacked charisma, the poor translation from the Russian script, or an unhealthy disconnect between audio and video synchronicity made the film more of a bore, I'm sure it was a combination of the three which effectively rendered most potentially moving scenes lukewarm.
The Italian, on paper, reads with noble intentions. But played out, the film feels surprisingly melodramatic and manipulative. The film's main actor, a young boy named Kolya Spiridonov, may look the part but cannot carry the demanded weight. Springing from uncomfortable post-editing, there usually feels like an unintentional eeriness surrounds the boy while observing his performance. The pain one abandoned child would harbor is completely relevant to this story, but Spiridonov clearly has not been given enough coaching to prepare for the part, and instead it feels like the filmmakers substituted one negative emotion for a less authentic one.
Picking up a considerable amount once our young star actually proceeds to undergo his brief journey, it is already too late in the act to start building momentum that was needed earlier. It all amounts to one of those unfortunate circumstances where a heavy, underlying relevance found in potent themes ends up being trampled by incompetence, either from the misguided direction, technical miscalculations, or all around award-pandering mentality this surprisingly insignificant foreign film offers.
The Italian, on paper, reads with noble intentions. But played out, the film feels surprisingly melodramatic and manipulative. The film's main actor, a young boy named Kolya Spiridonov, may look the part but cannot carry the demanded weight. Springing from uncomfortable post-editing, there usually feels like an unintentional eeriness surrounds the boy while observing his performance. The pain one abandoned child would harbor is completely relevant to this story, but Spiridonov clearly has not been given enough coaching to prepare for the part, and instead it feels like the filmmakers substituted one negative emotion for a less authentic one.
Picking up a considerable amount once our young star actually proceeds to undergo his brief journey, it is already too late in the act to start building momentum that was needed earlier. It all amounts to one of those unfortunate circumstances where a heavy, underlying relevance found in potent themes ends up being trampled by incompetence, either from the misguided direction, technical miscalculations, or all around award-pandering mentality this surprisingly insignificant foreign film offers.