Thriller premonition I received this review by e-mail from a longtime acquaintance of mine, Thermopylus, with a request to send it for publication if he did not submit it himself within a certain period of time. Time's up, here's the text.
***
The film begins and ends with scenes of a ritual and funerary nature (the main villain is the owner of the cemetery), more suitable for a horror film than for an investigative film and revenge. But they did not make me shudder and gather all my will into a fist.
A school physical education teacher is struck by a huge grief - a pregnant wife dies under the wheels of a car. Corrupt policemen mitigate the punishment of the culprit, and inconsolable Igor begins his own investigation, moving from powerless grief to the process of restoring justice that returns meaning to life.
The advantage and difference of the film from many criminal dramas, in my opinion, is that the main character (the role on the limit of Yakov Shamshin), without possessing stunning skills of karate, throwing knives and shooting at jumping targets at random, moves step by step to his goal.
The game of other male characters is traditionally masterful, everything is laid out on shelves. A cruel villain, shorthand villain, a bad investigator, a good investigator, a corrupt mayor, a highly moral wife of the mayor (30 years of life together)... In my opinion, the accumulation of material has reached a critically stalling mass, the development of the theme and the painting of the characters have reached the limit when it is time – for a while – to go into parody or thrash. Whoever takes the risk, then perhaps find the way to the top of the genre.
But with the main character (the mysterious role of Vera Shpak) - a young teacher from the same school as the main character, not everything is so simple and clear.
Immediately after the tragic event, she shows Igor her more than warm feelings, indecently crossing the boundaries of conventional attempts to defuse the terrible weight experienced by a person in such a situation. She constantly comes to him, calls, offers her company, touches him with her hands. Unstoppable craving for a loved one against decency and tradition? Yes, if not for one scene in the middle of the film.
Igor comes to her house wet through. She gives him tea, he falls asleep, and waking up and about to leave, he hears from her: “Don’t go, I didn’t have time to iron your jeans.”
Thank you so much to the filmmakers.
I've never seen it, but I'm beginning to guess. It was 00-30. After watching the movie, there was silence in my apartment – the washing machine stopped working. I closed my laptop, climbed out from under the blankets, pulled on my sneakers, put on my jacket and looked carefully into the kitchen. Yes, it is.
I quietly slipped out of the apartment, hardly caught a taxi and an hour later was in Sheremetyevo. It is good that the visa was given immediately for a year. With the last money I bought a ticket for the next one-way flight. With passport control there were some problems, but with personal inspection – no.
Twelve hours later, they landed in Montgomery, Alabama. There's no chase. Not yet. Laptop charging dies, card zero, pockets empty. I hope to get to the Canadian border.
7 out of 10
