More than two decades after his stunning debut on THE RETURN/’03, Russian writer/director Andrey Zvyagintsev continues to make absorbing films that don’t quite satisfy or come up to his first.* (Two of his eight not seen here. Both, like THE RETURN, titles where he takes no writing credit.) Like all his work, this well-reviewed work (his best received since THE RETURN?) is worth its running time, but certain filmmaking tics have crusted over into mannerism. Here it’s most noticeable in Zvyagintsev’s use of ominous slow tracking shots in, portending major revelation, but sans payoff, fizzling into mere transition. Still, this portrait of a dissolving bad marriage hit with the added pressure of a child neither seems particularly attached to suddenly gone missing, is compelling. Especially as acted out by the film's two self-centered couples. Only our lost, characterless boy earning compassion in a brief, shadowy shot, as he hides behind a door, overhearing his parents argue about their future and his. Their actions taken past the breaking point when the couple take two days to even notice his absence after overnights with the putative replacements. (The only other relative is the wife’s estranged termagant of a mother. A visit there the most rattling thing in the film.) Cunning and cutting, Zvyagintsev seems an extremely talented director in need of direction.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *As mentioned: THE RETURN/’03. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/09/return-2003.html
