The basic form of the story of this film is nothing new -- a man finds a new girlfriend after the death of his previous one. But in execution it's done with some originality and style, and it worth the time.
Earlier in the proceedings, there are a bunch of elements introduced which lead to some good, deadpan-but-exaggerated humor -- and while the film remains mostly comedy it works as comedy. Things like the extremely blunt psychologist and the protagonist's sex-obsessed boss end up being good recurring funny motifs. And for the first half the male and female lead are also played for sort of grim, depressed laughs, as it's clear they are both miserable and acting in ways that should be alienating everyone and destroying their lives.
The turn for the serious a little more than half way through works, as we learn about Vitaly's past misfortune, and the film manages both to become more serious and to convince us to root for these two characters who had been introduced as such unpleasant people.
Ilya Lyubimov very effectively plays a man depressed into a daze through most of the film, which if it doesn't necessarily make for dynamic scenes, does make an impact when filmed in context. Ingrid Olerinskaya does pretty well and believably starts with a wall of insouciant sarcasm that breaks down over the course of things; it's interesting that she was completely new to acting when cast.
The fact that it's about a grown man falling for a seventeen-year-old provokes disapproval in the world of the film, but not the arrest that it would in certain parts of the world. But the filmmaker isn't really interested in this moral issue principally.
It's a witty script and good entertainment that makes itself likable on either the more serious or comedic register.
Earlier in the proceedings, there are a bunch of elements introduced which lead to some good, deadpan-but-exaggerated humor -- and while the film remains mostly comedy it works as comedy. Things like the extremely blunt psychologist and the protagonist's sex-obsessed boss end up being good recurring funny motifs. And for the first half the male and female lead are also played for sort of grim, depressed laughs, as it's clear they are both miserable and acting in ways that should be alienating everyone and destroying their lives.
The turn for the serious a little more than half way through works, as we learn about Vitaly's past misfortune, and the film manages both to become more serious and to convince us to root for these two characters who had been introduced as such unpleasant people.
Ilya Lyubimov very effectively plays a man depressed into a daze through most of the film, which if it doesn't necessarily make for dynamic scenes, does make an impact when filmed in context. Ingrid Olerinskaya does pretty well and believably starts with a wall of insouciant sarcasm that breaks down over the course of things; it's interesting that she was completely new to acting when cast.
The fact that it's about a grown man falling for a seventeen-year-old provokes disapproval in the world of the film, but not the arrest that it would in certain parts of the world. But the filmmaker isn't really interested in this moral issue principally.
It's a witty script and good entertainment that makes itself likable on either the more serious or comedic register.