| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A- |
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|
| Visuals: |
A- |
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Chillingly impressive
by Roxana (movies profile)
Nov 26, 2007
11
of
11 people found this review helpful
I enjoyed this movie tremendously, and at the same time I was appalled by the harsh realism of the situations depicted.
(Spoiler)
The interactions between the characters are the major success of the movie.
Naomi Watts is perfect as the "less than ordinary" midwife (with Russian origins) that tries to find the family of a young woman that died after having given birth to a baby girl. As the story unfolds, the viewer finds out about the tragedy in Anna's life, a miscarriage that still hurts her and that is responsible in part for her determination in pursuing the truth. Despite her ordinary life, Anna is perceptive enough to realize the danger of her mission from half spoken threats and apparently inocuous enquiries. Even as she decides to do her best by the baby (exchanging the dead girl's diary for information about her family) she tries to enroll an insider's help (Nikolai's) in search for justice.
Viggo Mortensen does an exceptional job in his portrayal of an underling of a mob boss; he appears cold, he is casually cruel, but the viewer feels the character has a hidden agenda and moreover has the sheer ruthlessness to follow it through. What I loved most about this character is that one still wonders at the end of the movie about his true nature - there are many grey layers in his persona: he can dispose of a body very efficiently while cracking macabre jokes, he can dispose (less rapidly) of Chechen killers in a fight that exudes brutality and will to survive, but he also tries to preserve the life of the "nice people" and unfortunate people (the Ukrainian prostitute that he frees from sex slavery) and ultimately helps Anna save the little girl.
The story is about two worlds colliding for a brief period of time: the mob underworld and the life of ordinary people. At the end these two worlds remain apart: while Anna plays with the baby girl (her baby doll) in the garden, in the sunlight, Nikolai returns to the somber dark colors of the underworld.
The movie is a must see. |
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