Neadekvatnye lyudi (2010)

Genre: Romedy

Theme: Love

Undercurrent: Self improvement

Language: Russian

Watched it: On Youtube with English subtitles

30 year old Vitaly (Ilya Lyubimov) is a single guy trying to start a decent life, a life different from his normality. As he moves to Moscow to get over his guilty past, he befriends Kristina (by Ingrid Olerinskaya), a 20 year old girl. He also happens to be the find for his nymphomaniacal boss Marina (by Yuliya Takshina). As Vitaly and Kristina realize their love for each other to come over the hurdle of their age gap, they understand how they are different and embrace it. 

This movie moves upon conversations. The plot is neither rich nor does it have any special points of interest. All the scenes are shot in limited spaces - Vitaly's apartment, Kristina's apartment, Marina's office room, Vitaly's desk, a small pub, some shots of the office, one at a bar and 2 on road. This movie is on a shoe-string budget which can be seen at many places - the inconsistency with lighting, colorist's faults, inadequate music, lack of good background music, mistakes in recording etc., but the movie is a good treat. It was an enjoyable and happy watch. 

The innocence and quirkiness of a teenager are always happy to watch if one keeps out their attitude problems. As Kristina learns to interact and be positive about the world around her, Vitaly tries to forget some of his past and mend his ways to be a better person. Both become key to each other in this process and this blossoms into love. This change is so beautifully presented and well constructed that at any point, we just feel exactly what the line is - never a bit more, never a bit less - just that fine line from friendship to love. This is done keeping the insecurities and strengths of the lead pair intact which makes us feel for them and appreciate their growth. Screenplay, editing and direction are the highlights of this wonderful movie that keeps the elements of Russian art intact. 

As each character moves about to different changes through the line - as a mother appreciates her daughter, a psychologist understanding his patient, a girl appreciating people, a man finding love, a colleague moving through depression and so on, the elements merge into the story beautifully. This has been a feature that is common with most Russian dramas and is very endearing. My favorite scene is the last between mother and daughter - as the mother cries and moves her fears aside, her young daughter opens her wings into the world. To show change as it happens, the director uses subtle techniques with light, placing of characters, movement and body language. These are hard to depict as the actors just scrape through except the woman who played the mother's role, she stood way above everyone despite the brief role. While the innocence from her age carried Ingrid Olerinskaya half-way, she performed satisfactorily but the challenging role of Vitaly was a bit too much for Ilya Lyubimov as he failed to portray enough seriousness in many places, often being rigid at sensitive parts. The chemistry between them is missing in some places but is managed by using camera angles and nice dialogues. 

As the movie is made on a $100,000 budget, which is what some short films spend, it projects the talent of Roman Karimov (who made a brief cameo as a barman). And to do so in the budget, he has donned many caps including music, writing, and direction. I am eager to see what this talent can deliver, given better budget and technology. This movie reminds me a lot of Gautham Menon's works.