Danielle Steel: Abschied von St. Petersburg

Well, it is. A very romanticized version of life of aristocrats in exile. The funniest moment was when Zoya revealed that she brought the Faberge egg with her into Communist Russia. It would have been confiscated on the border as a national treasure, she wouldn't even have been compensated.

Zoya herself has too many late-20th century values for my tastes. Like her wanting to be a dancer, when most dancers of her culture and era were, in fact, courtesans. Her marrying a jewish man, while tsarist russia was very antisemitic. Well, it's a cute fairy tale anyway.

I admit that I usually despise Danielle Steele miniseries, but this is one that I feel amazingly tolerant towards.

Believable? No. Historically accurate? Not even close. Still, it's a fairly innocuous way to pass an afternoon should you chance upon in on Lifetime (where it used to appear with some frequency).

I will happily admit that I started watching it because Bruce Boxleitner was my first television crush (this was way back in his Scarecrow and Mrs. King days), but once I got into the story, I realized that it was like an entire soap opera compressed into four hours. If you are wanting to watch something and admire the acting and the riveting dialogue, look elsewhere. If you want a few hours of mindless but still entertaining popcorn fun, this might be for you.

PS--It's interesting to note that the daughter in the movie is played by a very pre-Alias Jennifer Garner.

For someone who has read the book, I find this movie version such a mis-representation of the characters. The film's Zoya is so different from the dignified Countess Zoya of the book; in the film, she is a talkative chatterbox much like the Russian bride stereotype of nowadays. The storyline is also very different from the book - as can be expected. However the central plot remains the same, overcoming tragedy and learning to appreciate the good things of live - especially family and the people we love. All in all, I would recommend the film to anyone, if only for the history learnt from the different generations that are spanned in the movie.

If you like Danielle Steele, you'll like this.

Hmmm.

No, that's not enough. How about, if you have a high tolerance for predictable nonsense then you might enjoy this?

Personally I only watched it because of Bruce Boxleitner, star of "Babylon 5". As you will no doubt realize if you have seen this, that is not really a valid reason for staying for the duration!

Ah well, it's (very) soapy but it's a fair enough way to waste a couple of hours.

OK not EVERY Danielle Steele story is the same, but enough of them are that you know what's coming. Tragedy, triumph, death, birth, war, precipitous rises and falls and rises agains, maybe a kidnapping or crash, that sort of thing. The heroine always has hair that is platinum blonde, jet black, or red. No dirty blondes or chestnut browns. She (Steele) has an often misplaced crush on the Aristocracy, even if said class and even actual characters perpetrated horrors or were just plain horrible (I speak of historic figures, not her fictionalized ones, but still). Never mind that, nothing to see here. I'll always have a soft spot for Gilbert, but she is miscast because frankly she isn't beautiful. Attractive, but not beautiful. And they have her cast as a supposed 17-year-old? Just no. I didn't know it was Jennifer Garner playing her daughter. Interesting. She also looks too old for the role, but I guess that's what happens when you have to age as the story progresses. WTH is Diana Rigg doing in this? Nice costumes. Also, I love the guy who played Simon. He's a doll. I think he also played Frank Sinatra in something.