C'era una volta una principessa

Melissa Gilbert is a so-so actress. She really doesn't vary a lot in the roles she plays so she can hide that fact fairly well. Who ever told her that she could play a Russian countess though needs to have their head examined. Her accent is hideous, and it makes her sound like a foghorn.

Diana Rigg and David Warner must have been having a slow year that they would take a job in this turkey, and young Samuel West is wasted in his few moments of air time as the countess' soldier brother.

The performances of the actors playing her children are mediocre as is the plot line involving the daughter. The girl makes it clear that her angst has to do with feeling ignored by her mother. In fact, during the scene where Zoya announces that she is going to have a child with her second husband she practically screams it. They could have resolved the relationship a lot sooner.

The one good thing that I can say about this is show is that at least the costumes, makeup, and hair look great. Everyone looks great even when they are supposed to have been traveling for days without benefit of a visit to the Imperial Hairdresser.

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.

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.

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.

Danielle Steels's Zoya creates a deep mark in mind. The director has got an astonishing style of portraying the tragic events in the story.At first I realised it when I saw the dying scene of Zoya's military brother. Zoya is telling him that I am going to bake cakes for you.And the dying man says 'Little Zoya, I am not hungry'.This is really heartbreaking.

The script of the movie has a magical way for directly piercing the heart.When Zoya lost her husband and money,we hear from her son telling about their old neighbour, 'She don't want to remember us, because we don't have money'.

Later at a point we see Zoya who is hunted by tragedies, going to the streets with her children.Her friend asks her ' You have future plans?' And she replies, 'Someone once said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans' The film's story is fascinating.The anguish of Zoya is handled with a graceful care. It shows the power of mind and love in a woman.It is really worth seeing.

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