Just watched this movie having previously read the plot online and been semi-excited to watch it. On the whole however I have to say I was left a little bit disappointed.
I've always been fascinated by life in the Soviet Union both during and after WWII and both during the Stalin and post-Stalin worlds, so anything set then is of interest to me.
Things I struggled with however were in the 90's part of the film, who Rebecca Ferguson was playing (I have since gather it's the main character's niece, but as you never see his sister this didn't make much sense) and secondly the lesbian-love angle between the niece the and journalist seems very unlikely to me to be credible. That in particular seemed more of an attempt to place modern values upon the past which is never something I am keen on in a movie.
The plot itself jumps around a bit through the timelines but you can kind of follow it and the ending I thought made the whole thing semi-worthwhile. It's just the middle section of the movie I thought was a bit weak.
On the whole though I think it's worth a watch, but wasn't one where I would ever be likely to want to watch it again.
I've always been fascinated by life in the Soviet Union both during and after WWII and both during the Stalin and post-Stalin worlds, so anything set then is of interest to me.
Things I struggled with however were in the 90's part of the film, who Rebecca Ferguson was playing (I have since gather it's the main character's niece, but as you never see his sister this didn't make much sense) and secondly the lesbian-love angle between the niece the and journalist seems very unlikely to me to be credible. That in particular seemed more of an attempt to place modern values upon the past which is never something I am keen on in a movie.
The plot itself jumps around a bit through the timelines but you can kind of follow it and the ending I thought made the whole thing semi-worthwhile. It's just the middle section of the movie I thought was a bit weak.
On the whole though I think it's worth a watch, but wasn't one where I would ever be likely to want to watch it again.