The Partner

The most mind-blowing thing about this movie is not the story (it is lame) or the acting (it's generally good) but the special effects used in it. Veteran actor Sergey Garmash's face is digitally motion-captured on the body of a toddler, a technical process highly ambitious even for a hollywood movie let alone a russian one. As expected the result is mixed but somehow still manages to impress. Yes, the uncanny valley effect kicks in in countless scenes but frankly I wouldn't expect the execution to be signifiantly better even in a major US blockbuster with a price-tag of a 150 million dollars. And let's face it: this movie couldn't have cost that much. The only non-american movie that comes to my mind where such complex shots were used was Fan with a digitally de-aged Shah-Rukh Khan but I can't think of any other examples. In other places Andrey Nazimov is a promising new actor and Vladivostok is an excellent location. Also there are a few themes too mature for such a family friendly movie, like a scene in a streptease bar and a gun pointed at the baby.