| A lonely Englishman sends off for a Russian mail-order
bride. The bride is played by an unlikely Nicole Kidman, the
Hawaiian-born actress generally assumed to be Australian. She's said to
have spoken no Russian before making this movie. Those who know more
Russian than I have said her Russian is remarkable for one who just
started speaking it, as is that of other cast members who similarly
spoke it for the first time in learning their movie lines herein. That
may be the most remarkable thing about this movie. If it were all that
remarkable, it might deserve five stars, but it is rather flawed in
fact. At first it's a fairly tense drama. The new groom is expecting a
bride who speaks English, but soon finds she apparently can't. More
surprises follow. She brings two "cousins" into his life, and
he soon finds that all three of these Russians are setting him up to
participate in a bank robbery. That much of the movie is decently
crafted, for whatever the story is worth. But an attempt to tack on a
real romance to that plot is purely ad hoc. The bride is as much a
participant in the robbery as her "cousins", so why should she
get a pass and be considered reformed to go on and make a satisfactory
wife? No reasonable attempt is made to show her reforming; were just
expected to accept an essentially happily-ever-after type ending to this
crime drama incongrously turned romance. You'd think the makers thought
the part most deserving their fine-tuned efforts was the irony of a
Hawaiian-born "Australian" who previously spoke no Russian
playing a Russian who can speak English but pretends not to. |
