A Different Loyalty

I just saw A different loyalty on DVD, and was very pleasantly surprised (especially after seeing the trailer). The story was extremely interesting and powerful. Sharon Stone and Rupert Everett were both fine in their parts, though their love story wasn't made completely believable (the second half of the movie was by far better than the beginning, and Sharon Stone actually did a great job portraying this woman). It took me a while to get used to the looks of the movie, though (I'm still not sure why the flashbacks looked so much like an erotic movie from the 70ies). But what an incredible story and a great and subtle script.

Watching this movie was a very disappointing experience. The premise was good (like with most movies out there), but the execution was just atrocious, and the story was unrealistic at best. For example, the movie shows us that a westerner was allowed to go in and out of Soviet Union, as well as go though streets of Moscow without any surveillance in the midst of cold war!!

Moreover, the actors seemed like they were made out of wood in terms of expressiveness. The story was painfully slow and was heading nowhere, really: nothing changed nor happened though the entire movie...

Funny how our protagonists had a view at the Basilica of Christ the Saviour in early 70s (Destroyed in early 20th century, restored in late 90s by the mayor of Moscow)... This and many other anachronisms give out the fact that the production team didn't even research the subject of their work before filming...

2/10

What a disappointment! After watching the film, there is a very good reason that actual names were not used - other than general similarities to circumstance, this is entirely a work of fiction.

Even a fictionalized account (inspired by the McClean story) could have been entertaining if had successfully delivered an historically accurate context (forget accuracy). There could have been a story of complex emotions, motivations and consequences but instead, you get a superficial drama that misses its mark or worse, doesn't even aim at the interesting targets.

This is a true waste of talent for such a great cast.

For me, the biggest thing that can make or break a movie is it's characters. The characters in this film, however, had about as much depth as a Kleenex. For the first half hour or so of the film, I found myself thinking "Who cares?". Basically, we're introduced to two people who meet and fall madly in love....in the first 5 minutes of the movie. No character development to speak of, and they certainly didn't change or grow during the course of the movie. Everett and Stone had zero chemistry, so the love scenes just looked forced and awkward. On top of all this, the film had no flow to it what-so-ever; it cut back and forth so quick and so often it was hard to keep track. Somehow it did manage to keep my attention throughout, so I guess that buys it a few points....but in general, this is a very poor film. Don't bother wasting 100 minutes of your life, watch something else.

2.5/10

The DVD packaging describes this movies as a thriller, and as if to underline that, shows a picture of helicopters circling an exploding van while a guy with a gun runs away.

This movie is not a thriller, and there are no explosions or helicopters. (What was that on the packaging? Clip art?) When I'm in the mood for explosions and helicopters, it's a disappointment to bring home a movie that instead has as its big moments someone breaking down a door or fingerprinting someone.

This movie is a rambling, disjointed drama. It wasn't completely awful, but was like real life in that the story doesn't completely make sense and doesn't work artistically. (And if they'd shown one more Casablanca-esquire foggy airfield, I'd have screamed.) It's just a bunch of confusing stuff that happens, and then other stuff happens, and who cares about any of those people? And we spent the first 45 minutes trying to tell the various dark-haired women apart. Or maybe they were all the same woman. Still don't know.