A long walk spoiled

Rating: 5/10 (30 December 2016)

Hard to believe why anyone would think this might make a good movie. Basically, a group of people suffering misery in a gulag escape to suffer misery in the wilderness. They walk and they walk and they walk some more. The only hint of drama comes when they are followed by Saoirse Ronan, and they start to walk a bit faster. Even her introduction does't serve to spice things up. There is little meaningful interaction amongst the cast. Dialogue is stilted and sparse. Being self-consciously accented doesn't make it more intelligible. Farrell, while excellent, is all too convincing as a Russian speaking garbled English. Couldn't get what he was saying. Ronan once again does her impression of a middle class schoolgirl in an alien environment. Some controversy on whether this is true or made up. If it's made up, they could have developed the script some more.