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I would not compare this movie with "Ironiya Sudby". Rather, it looks very much like "Odinokaya zhenshchina zhelayet poznakomitsya" (1986), with the same actress (Irina Kupchenko) playing a similar part 15 years later (and she does look as good in 2001 as she did in 1986).

Like in "Odinokaya zhenshchina" the heroine is a lonely woman taking non-traditional steps and some risks to find a man. There she did it for herself, here she is doing it and more for her "dying" mother who desperately wants to see her daughter to have a family of her own. Well, being older, she takes bolder steps and greater risks.

Now, after the episode with jewelries you should either stop watching the movie in disgust, or re-adjust your understanding of it. Because it is not a more or less realistic story based on common sense like "Odinokaya zhenshchina", but a fantasy based on some noble and naïve ideas of people's response to kindness and good people finding and keeping each other.

If you accept this transformation from realism to fantasy, you can leisurely enjoy theatrical atmosphere the actors provide (the movie is an adaptation of a play), the point the movie is trying to make, and the inevitable "feel good" finale.

A modern fairy tale. seductive for performances, humor and atmosphere. and for nostalgic flavor. love story, idealistic, with large crumbs of fantaisy in the period of Christmas. smart dialogue, clash between diferent perspectives and a film who you know be so familiar, than all seems more than predictable. but the surprises are not less. so, a beautiful romantic film using the Russian recipe.

This highly preposterous film is a pathetic attempt at recreating the mood and quirckiness of "Ironiya Sudby" (1975). Even the plot is somewhat similar. However, while in "Ironiya Sudby" excellent acting was on par with the intelligent and very tasteful scenario, here, relatively good acting meets a plot that at times seems to have been borrowed from a play written by a 3rd grader. The dialogue appears badly ad-libbed for the most part of the film. The plot-holes are simply astonishing at times (for example, Sofya bequeathing the jewelry to her newly found grand-daughter and NOT to her own daughter with whom she, an invalid, has spent most of her life, or, Sofya sudenly starts walking to no one's awe). I have no idea what effect the directors went for in the slapping scene. I found it shocking and disturbing.

The film's target audience is well-defined, and the main feeling throughout the picture is that of nostalgia. The attempts at symbolism were perhaps the most laughable, of which it will suffice to mention "the boy who lives upstairs" / angel-cupid. The only thing that saves this film from being a total disaster are, perhaps, the three actors. They do a decent job of portraying their implausible characters and Irina Kupchenko is quite charming as Tatyana. Had this film been more thought-out and the plot elaborated on, it would have made a worthy installment into the genres of both romance and comedy of life (i.e. socio-economic Realism); however, standing as it does, it is (ironically) a nostalgic reminiscence of an era of movie-making that has gone by.

Very good movie. Everyone must see. Very good actors.

A magnificent film about human relations. On the eternal values - love, honesty, integrity, chivalry. And all this with the ineradicable belief in happiness and optimism. A wonderful romantic comedy with unpredictable twists. I completely agree with the following reviews - "The film does not describe in words, it should look. Superb actors, their game is so professional and really realistic that you begin to believe in the existence of heroes! The script in general is above all praise, the dialogs are built funny, realistic characters ever play a trick on each other. The film - a storehouse of various amusing phrases and jokes that are now firmly and permanently logged into my vocabulary. Oleg Jankowski and Irina Kupchenko - inimitable! Looking at their game, all the young actors are solely responsible to take an example, I think so. But talent - this is God's gift, he can not learn! These two amazing actors prove it! Stunning fairytale Christmas gift for any man. The film is about what happiness is still very possible at any age" ...