Everybody loves "Lord Nicolas"...I don't

Rating: 6/10 (26 October 2005)

First of all, I liked many things about this movie: the photography, the acting (especially Bridget Moynahan and Jared Leto), some scenes and details (the airplane scene in the African desert or the container where Orlov stores the picture he bought from his wife) and its courage to be poetic and satirical. What I also appreciated was the fact that Cage's character wasn't presented as the bad guy. What I missed was the "space" for the character of Yuri Orlov. The movie rushes through his personal development and doesn't really take the time to take a closer look at the person. Some scenes give an idea of how multi-faceted this Orlov is (e.g. when he takes the toy-gun from his son, talks to his new wife at their marriage, buys her picture), but these scenes remain unconnected with the rest of the story. There would have been much potential to make a real epic out of this by taking in more political relations and private conflicts (with wife, brother or parents). In my eyes the film just stays too much on the surface and seems a little incomplete.