"The Thief" is a Russian slice-of-miserable-life film about a Soviet boy and his young widowed mother who fall in with a charismatic soldier of low character. Other than a beautfully filmed look at the Russian landscape and culture, rarely seen in the West, this austere but well crafted Hollywood antagonist offers the viewer little more than the three characters and their story. The interest in the film is realized through empathy for the characters; something made easy by excellent performances, direction, screenplay, etc. An excellent, plaintive film about life under difficult circumstances and one boy's coming of age.
