'Leviathan' A Review

Leviathan is an Academy Award nominated Russian drama set on the coast of the Barents Sea about a hot-headed and hard-drinking auto mechanic. Kolya's land is being repossessed by the crooked mayor and his attempts at due process are being denied by the corrupt bureaucracy. His son is a burgeoning hooligan, his wife is having an affair with his best friend and lawyer, everyone drinks vodka like it's water, and everyone has guns. Oh my!

There isn't much acting to speak of in the movie given all the characters are drunk for the majority of the running time. The cast does act drunk well but in the cinema as in life watching drunks is rather insufferable. None of the characters are likable, none of them connect, they are on their own individual islands of petty suffering. People being awful to each other doesn't solicit engaged viewing.

The story is jumbled, sweeping, and borderline incoherent. Numerous plot machinations are brought up, never explored, then discarded. The overarching point seems to be an indictment of the Russian government, which at least the movie succeeds in albeit heavy-handedly. But it also attempts to make some kind of broader comments about life, relationships, and communication which fail miserably. It starts to address family, infidelity, alcoholism, religion but never stops to examine the issues it glacially glosses over. For an overlong, "contemplative", trudgingly paced movie it doesn't actually cover a lot of emotional or psychological ground.

The innumerable plot elements fall into two categories: facile(like the priest recounting the story of Job in this clear Job allegory) or inexplicable(like the unmotivated suicide or was it murder!).

Plodding, scatter-shot, lacking the emotional resonance it desperately tries to wield.

Don't See It.