I was really intrigued by this film because of the title and description. The blurb about "Soviet political collapse" and all that made me think it really would be based on something to do with that or that the main story would be about the political collapse. In a sense it was but it was more about relationship issues. I think it was supposed to be metaphors about governments but I just didn't get that out of this storyline. They spent very little time on that. The main story was the marital issues and taking care of her 'lovers'. But the characters showed barely any emotions. None during intimacy, killing, political chats, etc. Most of the time they were straight-faced, with a few very unreal laughs. I would have enjoyed some more realness to make you feel what they're feeling, to really get involved with the story.
Overall, it was slow going - getting to the point or purpose. For almost 2 hours long you just sort of wondered what was going on. Starting with a poor nudity scene just didn't get me excited. It had a lot of nudity with no emotions, as well. I mean these people are doing the acts (multiple times) and literally no facial expressions during the acts. Doesn't seem to be enjoyable for them so how is a viewer supposed to not feel awkward and uncomfortable watching that. It really was unnecessary for most of it and didn't add value to the story besides knowing the wife was cheating.
The only part I didn't mind was reading the subtitles and the outside views. It just didn't draw me in and keep me entertained the whole time.
Overall, it was slow going - getting to the point or purpose. For almost 2 hours long you just sort of wondered what was going on. Starting with a poor nudity scene just didn't get me excited. It had a lot of nudity with no emotions, as well. I mean these people are doing the acts (multiple times) and literally no facial expressions during the acts. Doesn't seem to be enjoyable for them so how is a viewer supposed to not feel awkward and uncomfortable watching that. It really was unnecessary for most of it and didn't add value to the story besides knowing the wife was cheating.
The only part I didn't mind was reading the subtitles and the outside views. It just didn't draw me in and keep me entertained the whole time.