One big disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2009)

I don't like Russian movies generally, but I was going through that 'damn' book "1001 MOVIES you must see before you die" and I saw this one. I was really surprised because I didn't even heard about it. Came here, read this board, I thought "Gee, this must be good". It took one day for me to find DVD, and here I am - ready to watch. And everything went downhill since than 1) IMDb says its in Russian. Hell no, I couldn't understand a damn thing (most of the movie). It was in Belorussian or Ukranian language. I almost hugged TV just to hear some familiar words. There were no subs... I know this is not movie's problem but it gave me a really hard times 2) The whole relationship between Glasha and whatever-his-name-is was just a mess. It led nowhere. From the moment he saw her the first time - it was like was wondering why she is going with other guys and he was just sitting in a tub. It looked like he wanted more, thats what I thought. But there was no more. So I don't see why Glasha-character was even there. Also if they decided to add her - so please bother to tell what happened with her at the end (dead, missing, etc?) 3) Bad lead character development. The was no... lets say "presentation" of him in the beginning at all. I simply didn't care about him. It is hard to like a movie when you don't like / care about lead. 4) Some action of characters was just idiotic (first talk with Glasha in the woods, OMG. It was too strange) 5) Many posters here said about "how great was the acting". Didn't see that 6) Didn't feel the whole war-thing. (MAYBE is was just me) 7) The barn scene was stupid. Do you remember before the fire two people got out from the window. OK. Here comes the fire. Is it BETTER to stay inside and burn alive or you COULD at least try not get shot but go through the window??? It was about 100 or 200 people inside and all they did it's screaming? I'm not buying it. Maybe its because movie was cheap, I don't know about others but I was looking on empty barn on fire 8) I can think of more but do I really need to? I've got an idea that most of the people liked it because its Russian (kinda new, exotic, about the war). If this is the reason - I get it. For example I have a thing for danish movies, there is something magic about them for me. I didn't see any Russian people here, and I must say this movie is not very "popular" here in Russia. I ask a lot people about it, even my mom and dad haven't seen it. I tried to like it, I gave every possible chance for it, but "idi i smotri" responded with nothing right back to me.