Andrei Zvyagintsev's film "Loveless" is about a middle class couple getting divorced because they understand that their marriage is loveless. The beginning of the film is promising - the son overhears his parents talking that they want to give him up to the orphanage after their divorce because he is an obstacle for their further happy life.
However after the child disappears, the film becomes completely pointless and uninspiring. It contains a lot of meaningless conversations, not very exciting sex with plain looking people, and all this occurs against the boring background of drab and colorless Moscow apartments.
Towards his characters director is clearly loveless; they are entirely uninteresting to him, but unfortunately they become uninteresting not only to the author, but also to the viewer. The director obviously skimped on the actors because he thought that for the depiction of such humdrum personalities good actors were not needed. The result is flat, lifeless, paper-thin characters. The course of events is mundane and very predictable. The sole protagonist - the son - vanishes so quickly that we do not have time to get to know or love him. It is especially important to note the mediocre camera-work. The centric composition is ordinary and inexpressive. Lighting is poorly thought out. The only beautiful shots are of the frozen lake and the rest of the footage is very banal. This is quite surprising, because cinematographer Mikhail Krichman is the same one who worked on Zvyagintsev's previous, much more visually expressive films. At the end of the film we see a television broadcast of events in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine - loveless and divorced. However, this association looks contrived. The heroine wearing a tracksuit with Russia imprinted upon it, is a prototype of Russia, tired and not loving its children. But this metaphor by Zvyagintsev seems calculated, inorganic and senseless. The film looks very inexpensive and as if done in a hurry. Andrei Zvyagintsev, who previously proved himself to be a high level master with the film "Leviathan", is disappointing in this picture. In "Leviathan" there were brilliant acting performances, amazing locations and profound thoughts. "Loveless" unfortunately only manages to arouse epithets with a suffix LESS.
Read more at: http://indie-cinema.com/
However after the child disappears, the film becomes completely pointless and uninspiring. It contains a lot of meaningless conversations, not very exciting sex with plain looking people, and all this occurs against the boring background of drab and colorless Moscow apartments.
Towards his characters director is clearly loveless; they are entirely uninteresting to him, but unfortunately they become uninteresting not only to the author, but also to the viewer. The director obviously skimped on the actors because he thought that for the depiction of such humdrum personalities good actors were not needed. The result is flat, lifeless, paper-thin characters. The course of events is mundane and very predictable. The sole protagonist - the son - vanishes so quickly that we do not have time to get to know or love him. It is especially important to note the mediocre camera-work. The centric composition is ordinary and inexpressive. Lighting is poorly thought out. The only beautiful shots are of the frozen lake and the rest of the footage is very banal. This is quite surprising, because cinematographer Mikhail Krichman is the same one who worked on Zvyagintsev's previous, much more visually expressive films. At the end of the film we see a television broadcast of events in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine - loveless and divorced. However, this association looks contrived. The heroine wearing a tracksuit with Russia imprinted upon it, is a prototype of Russia, tired and not loving its children. But this metaphor by Zvyagintsev seems calculated, inorganic and senseless. The film looks very inexpensive and as if done in a hurry. Andrei Zvyagintsev, who previously proved himself to be a high level master with the film "Leviathan", is disappointing in this picture. In "Leviathan" there were brilliant acting performances, amazing locations and profound thoughts. "Loveless" unfortunately only manages to arouse epithets with a suffix LESS.
Read more at: http://indie-cinema.com/