History played as Farce without Losing its Darkness

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2018)

This film describes itself as a "comedy of terrors" and that's an accurate description. There were some farcical true events around the death of Stalin and this film plays upon the comedy of that but without losing the impact of how terrible these times were. This treatment may well attract a wider audience, to discover a period in time they may not have known about, than if it was just presented as a bleak dark history with nothing to relieve the grimness. It's an interesting experiment and it is taking a risk. I imagine it may attract some criticism for this, but I found it very interesting and absorbing. It's not "laugh out loud" humour generally but when I saw it in the cinema, it was full, and I did hear some laughter but mostly the audience seemed absorbed. The trailer plays up the comical farcical elements but the film also packs a serious punch about the horror of Stalin's dictatorial regime. There are some enjoyable performances by some well known actors.