Although this movie is suffering from a shaky script, Sibirskij tsiryulnuk makes for a very entertaining movie. The pretty face of Julia Ormond, the beautiful camera work of Franco Di Giacomo and Pavel Lebeshev, the terrific classical music and the story, that is nothing more than a spiced up love story, combine to something that is much, much more than the sum of its parts. The Barber is an entertaining, very funny cinematic ride that doesn't bore for any one of its 180 (yep it's that long) minutes.
Julia Ormond is Jane Callahan, coming to Moscow to help her father out in obtaining funding for some technical project he is working on. Nothing more than a framework to accommodate the love story between Jane and Andrei Tolstoy (no connection to the writer) as played by Oleg Menshikov. Oleg, already an actor since 1981 (!), is doing a very good job as the tormented lover caught in-between his love for Jane and the military academy he's studying at.
There are some bad voice oversee, some of the acting isn't fully up to par and some scenes or part of some scenes are totally unnecessary. But, the rest of the movie easily makes up for the minor mistakes made here and there. Halfway through the movie, Jane and a Russian general she is trying to convince in sponsoring her fathers project, visit a Russian carnival. Having a hard time in trying, she convinces the general, who doesn't drink, in taking a vodka. From there on, its 15 minutes of Hilarious fun, where the general turns out to be an alcoholic, tries to conquer Napoleon and almost joins in a staged fist fight between some 75 half naked men.
I expected a bit more of a classic in the making when I went to see the Barber. Something more of an epic. I definitely didn't get what I was expecting. But the movie is nice to watch, being funny and entertaining. Yes, the script leaves some strings untied, but still, worth a screening.
Julia Ormond is Jane Callahan, coming to Moscow to help her father out in obtaining funding for some technical project he is working on. Nothing more than a framework to accommodate the love story between Jane and Andrei Tolstoy (no connection to the writer) as played by Oleg Menshikov. Oleg, already an actor since 1981 (!), is doing a very good job as the tormented lover caught in-between his love for Jane and the military academy he's studying at.
There are some bad voice oversee, some of the acting isn't fully up to par and some scenes or part of some scenes are totally unnecessary. But, the rest of the movie easily makes up for the minor mistakes made here and there. Halfway through the movie, Jane and a Russian general she is trying to convince in sponsoring her fathers project, visit a Russian carnival. Having a hard time in trying, she convinces the general, who doesn't drink, in taking a vodka. From there on, its 15 minutes of Hilarious fun, where the general turns out to be an alcoholic, tries to conquer Napoleon and almost joins in a staged fist fight between some 75 half naked men.
I expected a bit more of a classic in the making when I went to see the Barber. Something more of an epic. I definitely didn't get what I was expecting. But the movie is nice to watch, being funny and entertaining. Yes, the script leaves some strings untied, but still, worth a screening.