User Reviews

Vovochka was produced in 2002 and directed by Igor Mozzhukhin. A comedy, it takes place in a Moscow suburban country house and deals with the exploits of a young boy during the New Year holiday season. The boy, our protagonist, spends most of his time unintentionally terrorizing the other main characters, chiefly his parents and the town authorities, through a series of games and pranks gone wrong. He also becomes entangled in a pseudo-dramatic romantic subplot with a young girl in his neighborhood.

I really liked this film. Having seen it indeed with the introduction that "Vovochka" is the Russian take on "Home Alone", I was expecting something more slapstick and light-hearted. While "Vovochka" certainly has plenty of over-the-top comedic moments, I was struck by the film's content and honesty.

American family films are more often than not weighed down with a sappy moral responsibility to the younger members of its audience. "Vovochka" ends on an ambiguous, even bleak note that offers no resolution. Will our young hero ever really "grow up?" Maybe. Maybe not. Therein lies the simple honesty of this Russian "Home Alone".

The father and uncle smoking on the porch - this is something that would never fly in US family cinema, but it's there in "Vovochka", and it goes to show how picky American studios can get over PG content.

"Vovochka" is still very much "fun" - the snowmobile chase and Vladimir Putin (was that really him?) cameo are worth the price of admission alone. I would definitely recommend this film alone or as a double feature up against Chris Columbus' tame and morally preachy US "Home Alone".

Vovochka, a young Russian boy, is a Russian version of the "Denace the Menace" idea. That said, this movie pales in comparison to the American "Dennis the Menace" and the "Home Alone" series. In the movie, Vovochka is your basic out-of-control kid and is constantly getting into trouble. He lives primarily with his mother and grandmother as his father, a Russian soldier, is constantly away. Probably his funniest antic was building a rocket out of old cans and gunpowder from his dad's shells. Although his original goal was to impress a local girl, Vovochka's rocket hits a power sub-station and is soon after labeled a terrorist attack. The movie culminates in a chase scene between Vovochka and local authorities. As I am from the United States, most of the commentary on contemporary Russian culture goes right over my head. This movie was okay, but is nowhere near what an American audience would consider worthy of being ranked beside Dennis the Menace or Home Alone.

Vovochka, the main character, spends the New Year's holiday at the family dacha with his parents and grandmother. Vovochka, though not actively seeking trouble, always seems to find himself in some sort of mischief. He reminds me of a Russian Dennis the Menace. His most amusing adventure stems from making a rocket out of gunpowder from his father's rabbit shot, cans, and part of the vacuum cleaner. He sets of the rocket to impress the neighbor girl. The rocket hits a power station and knocks out the power to the town. The local government assumes that this is a terrorist attack. Local officials realize that Vova actually caused the problem and cover it up. There is an interesting dynamic between Vova and the neighbor children. The neighbors, nouveau riche Russians whose dacha is complete with an indoor swimming pool, forbid their children from associating with Vova. Vova manages to help the boy sneak out of the house and ends up pouring cold water over him in a game. Vova does however steal the heart of the neighbor girl, and she sneaks next door to see Vova. Vova's father, ex-military, works in an anti-terrorist group, so that he will not end up as a guard to some other new money family. The film is very amusing and relays the typical family and socio-economic dynamics in modern Russia.

Vovochka is your everyday hooligan vs authority movie. Vovochka, the main character, is branded early as a bad influence on the children in the neighborhood. With the words of wisdom from a couple of grownups he meets along the way, he finds changing his mischievous ways hard, yet worthy of doing. Personally, I found actor who played Vovochka too annoying to sympathize with, however the change of tone of the movie would allow most to feel the emotional struggle Vovochka has when he wants to be good but bad things still happen. This struggle makes the movie a little different than other movies of the same genre, that's the little flavor I meant. All in all, I did not really care for this movie, although it was most likely aimed for a younger audience.

This film has been labeled a Russian "Home Alone", and on one level provides similar entertainment, but the cultural subtext is a very rich one. Its intent is far more serious social commentary than in a typical American comedy -- something that a non-Russian-speaking audience may have difficulty catching. "Vovochka" - the quintessential "Dennis-the-Menace" type, fantasizes about being praised for his heroism by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who shares his name (Vovochka, being a nickname for Vladimir) as does Vladimir Lenin. Unfortunately, his fate (or "karma", as the poet-alcoholic-on-the-dissident fringes explains to him) is to be constantly a free spirit and an irritant to the authorities. This adult character bears the name "Alexander Sergeevich," the name of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, whom he quotes constantly and in ironic ways. He is played by Yuri Shevchuk, a very popular contemporary rock musician from the band DDT. Shevchuk is a Bob Dylan type in contemporary Russian culture. There are lots of jokes about the erasure of truth despite the efforts of contemporary journalists, and introduces the very contemporary conflict between the young hero's modest, but very positive family and the wealthy "New Russian" neighbors, the former-KGB-thug body guards, and the politicking local authorities. I was very glad that I ignored the negative ratings I had read and watched it anyway.