Be warned, there's a much, much stronger movie based on the same play. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073743/
This is not that I'm not into remakes, but it's just bad. Everything is bad - music (balalaikas - of course, such a fresh choice, violins), acting. The depiction of Russian emigrants is so stereotypic that this even surprises - but which is way more surprising is that they are emigrants at all. The thing is that the play is about human relationships and the story can be told about an old man with ruined life of literally any nationality. He could be 100% WASP American, he could be an African American, he could be whoever, but being a very lubberly depicted Russian emigrant - well, this actually just distracts.
Which is an excellent yet sad example of how even a genial play can be ruined.
Once again, watch the movie I've gave link to. It is masterpiece congenial to the play.
This is not that I'm not into remakes, but it's just bad. Everything is bad - music (balalaikas - of course, such a fresh choice, violins), acting. The depiction of Russian emigrants is so stereotypic that this even surprises - but which is way more surprising is that they are emigrants at all. The thing is that the play is about human relationships and the story can be told about an old man with ruined life of literally any nationality. He could be 100% WASP American, he could be an African American, he could be whoever, but being a very lubberly depicted Russian emigrant - well, this actually just distracts.
Which is an excellent yet sad example of how even a genial play can be ruined.
Once again, watch the movie I've gave link to. It is masterpiece congenial to the play.