Keaton gets more to do

Rating: 7/10 (2 October 2016)

Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) is facing execution as he recounts his story. In Czarist Russia, Boris is in love with his intellectual cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton). She is jilted by Boris' handsome brother Ivan and marries a rich herring merchant instead. Despite being a coward, Boris is drafted to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. Sonja becomes a widow. Ivan is killed in the war but Boris becomes an accidental hero. The two reunite to marry and try to save the world by assassinating Napoleon.
This is a parody of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy novels in a spoof. As such, this may not be to everyone's taste. One has to have a wide-ranging literary and art film knowledge to appreciate a lot of the jokes. Diane Keaton does get to do more in this one. She has some darker sides and is almost equal to Woody. The literary crowd may have some laughs although they may be too stuffy to relax about the skewering.