Touches You

The Worst Film Ever

Admirable film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer. Excellent pair in a movie that receives most of my stars from music, written by Jerry Goldsmith. While the story itself unfolds kinda slowly I still find it intriguing. The bias is not either on Russian or USA sided which is quite refreshing. This movie is worth watching on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I read John LeCarre's book and I never thought a movie version could be as boring, but somehow, it was.Sean Connery is expectedly appealing, but one can tell he only did this movie so he could get a free trip to Russia. Michelle Pfeiffer is cute, though she appears to have bitten off more than she can chew here. Nice Russian cityscapes, but the musical soundtrack drones on endlessly in the background. It would be difficult to recommend this film over LeCarre's novel - both are convoluted. One of those flicks where you can fall asleep for 10 minutes and then wake up with the feeling that you haven't missed anything. Snooze City.

Based on John le Carré's novel of the same name, 'The Russia House' offers Fine Performances, but as a film, its plain ordinary. It does have some captivating moments, but overall, the slow pace & a half-baked Adapted Screenplay, act as a disadvantage. 'The Russia House' Synopsis: An expatriate British publisher unexpectedly finds himself working for British intelligence to investigate people in Russia.'The Russia House' begins nicely, but loses momentum after 45-minutes into the film. Sure, the second-hour has some interesting moments, but the Writing isn't striking. The Climax, however, works. Tom Stoppard's Adapted Screenplay isn't without merit, but is flawed as well. Also, the slow-pace left me restless at times. Fred Schepisi's Direction is skilled & well-done. Cinematography is excellent. Editing is fair. Performance-Wise: Sir Sean Connery, with a flawless Russian accent, is in good form. Michelle Pfeiffer, also with a superbly picked-up Russian accent, is natural to the core. Roy Scheider is flawless. He stands out. James Fox is effective. Klaus Maria Brandauer is terrific in a small, but significant role. On the whole, 'The Russia House' could've been so much more.

Sean Connery further undermines his James Bond image by portraying, with obvious irony, a grubby amateur spy exploited by British Intelligence to obtain top secret information from somewhere inside the Kremlin. It's a far cry from Ian Fleming, presenting a serious, more credible espionage caper and suggesting that underneath the cosmetic reforms of glasnost the same invisible wheels continue turning (and for spy writers like John Le Carré, they had better be). The game of bluff and counter-bluff will be familiar to any fan of cloak-and-dagger fiction (the true villains, not surprisingly, are the gray-suited puppet-masters of the SIS and CIA), but all the clichés of the genre are at least brought together with a craftsmanship rare in Hollywood at the time. Director Fred Schepisi takes advantage of the Russian locations by making the film into something of a wide-screen travelogue, but the absurd, happily-ever-after epilogue is out of place: it looks like an imposed afterthought, and certainly can't match the more thoughtful ambivalence of the book's final pages.