What happens if you try to repeat the style of Guy Ricci, take the plot of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" and try to play it up with the sauce of "Faster than a Bullet"? It sounds interesting, but in reality... But first things first.
I very rarely go to the cinema to watch Russian films. That's how they have proven themselves. Unfortunately, a new experience confirmed my fears. But that's not the point now. I decided to give this film a chance, although I already saw from the trailer an obvious carbon copy of the work about Hercule Poirot. And what did I see? Let's be honest, first about the obvious advantages of the film.
Pros:
Acting. I can't say anything bad about this aspect, quite the opposite. Milos Bikovic is charming and good. He plays effortlessly and you want to believe him. Gleb Kalyuzhny, Zheng Hanyi, Gosha Kutsenko and Huang Haonan also did well. These actors really tried! And, frankly, without Bikovic and Kalyuzhny this film would be impossible to watch.
Visuals. The picture really looks expensive and spectacular in places. A couple of action scenes look cheap (at the level of Hollywood of the late 90s), but spectacular. But this, unfortunately, concerns only a small share of scenes.
Alas, that's where the pros end. Now let's list the obvious cons.
Cons:
Elena Podkaminskaya. Her performance reminded me of Cate Blanchett's character from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Everyone remembers how caricatured and stupid that character looked? It's exactly the same here. Constant overacting and strained delivery. That's all there is to the least interesting character in this film.
Directing. I will highlight this aspect especially, because Andrey Volgin decided to jump above his head. It is not the first time he tries to copy the style of Western filmmakers, but this time he took aim at Guy Ricci. I am not exaggerating. Remember the mind-blowing scene from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in the forest? Now imagine that a person saw it, told it to his friend, the friend told it, being drunk, to his girlfriend, the girlfriend to your grandmother, and the grandmother to your grandfather, and he to you. What came out in the end is this very scene from Andrey Volgin's creation, chewed over five times and only a pale parody. And there are a lot of such "borrowings" here! Hand-held shooting, slow-mo, quick editing, object tracking, tracking stabilization and object (character) tying. Everything that Ricci uses, Volgin also tries to use clumsily. And no, Mr. Ricci does not have an unconditional patent right to it. But if you are going to copy, then do it well, not like that.
The script. An incredibly lazy plot, with a certain MacGuffin that everyone is running after (or with) from the beginning to the end of the film. And no, like with the painting from RocknRolla or the suitcase from Pulp Fiction, we are not told the full value of this object. But in the cases mentioned, it was artistically and cleverly played out. And here? What kind of documents? Why are they needed? What are they capable of? Gentlemen, these are not infinity stones capable of destroying the universe. And not a list of all spies behind enemy lines. This is simply a list of names. Which ones? Why? Who? Don't expect an answer to this question. We are being made to understand in no uncertain terms that this was a list of all oppositionists to the new People's Republic of China, then I would understand why the Soviets and the PRC need it, but why do the Japanese need it, who does the shadow villain work for (a twist for the sake of a twist)? The whole plot is sewn with white threads and literally falls apart when you try to clarify anything. Deliberately complicated and pretentious, it tries to be clever, but it doesn't work.
There are still many minuses, like unremarkable music, weak special effects. And don't complain about the budget. $8 million. This is a good budget for Russian cinema. Let me remind you that "Godzilla: Minus One" cost $15 million. And won an Oscar for best visual effects.
I still believe in Russian cinema. But "Red Silk" only added new doubts rather than increased my faith.
5 out of 10.
