Dostoevsky's story of a cat and mouse game between an amoral seducer, pushed by circumstances toward love, and a mourning cuckold pushed toward hate and revenge is one of the most richly textured and exciting works of fiction in world literature. This indie adaptation boasts a thoughtful reworking of the text for contemporary times and even it's low-budget makes the film seem more real and immediate than an opulent stagy BBC video production would. The downside is that some of the scenes seem like they would have used the benefit of more takes and more coverage. At it's worst, the long-take scenes drag -- but at their best -- as in a suspenseful scene in a bar in which, after a five minute static shot, the camera suddenly makes a rapid track in to an extreme close up of one man giving the other the kiss of death -- are electric. The film doesn't measure up to such moments often enough to make this a definitive adaptation, but it's definitely worth seeing of fans of true psychological drama (as opposed to the more usual "psycho-illogical" dramas).
