sdcoats

A poignant performance on an old story: surviving (with a little help from your brother)

This movie has to be viewed from the beginning with an acceptance that will vary with each viewer. Please ward off any preconceptions about the actors, styles, and the world in which it's enacted and a wonderful thing begins to happen. I picked up this movie on a discount laser-disk sale, having no idea what it was about. I could find no reviews. I didn't need any, as I soon found out. They might have kept me from making the choice I did. Some people will simply see the vulgarity. Some will analyze the acting. The ‘in your face' performances and dialog by Tim Roth and Alexis Arquette develops to the degree of reality that the one brother's love for his only brother transcends anything else that has to do with the movie. The score by Steve Postel complements this result. And the direction of Jeff Stanzler skillfully moves us to where we ache inside for the movie to end on a positive stage. The story is tragic and ends tragically. But for those of us who understand life, efforts and love aren't lost to those of us who survive no matter how something ends. This movie has it all. I give it six out of a possible five stars.

Sean Connery as well as the entire cast performed effectively to define a man (Barley Scott Blair) who's life was essentially empty until he became a "Good Man" to a mysterious Russian author. Was Barley and Katia an unlikely match? Most likely under ordinary circumstances. But when all the best plans of the men in grey suits began to fall apart, Barley's unselfish and risky rescue of Katia, her children and her Uncle became one of the most endearing romances I have ever seen. Watching the movie, I couldn't help but envy him, that's what movies are for, but then I wonder could I have matched his courage.