Perestroika

I picked this up because one the title caught my eye and I noticed Ally Sheedy was in it and I haven't seen her in anything since Kyle-XY.

In a nutshell it's about Sasha Greenberg, Sam Robards, who returns to Russia 17yrs after he left to reconnect with those he knew before he left due to Communism ending back in 1992.

Ally Sheedy plays his now x-wife who originally helped him escape Russia through marriage. There are many flashbacks of Sasha Greenberg of what was going on in his life in 1992 and during a get together with his friends at his birthday party the flashbacks increase and at one point I couldn't tell what was current or the past. This could be because I drifted off to a mild sleep I was so captivated and moved by the film. There are 3 women that play a role in Sasha's life and he's always torn between who he's more interested in. The one he left behind, the one he married/divorced and the one he's dating now.

Overall, there is more I could say, but feel I've spent enough time just watching it. This film didn't pull me in and get me involved in the story. It was more like going to see a play in a small theatre with some novice actor/actresses. Not overally interesting....

Having stopped watching the movie at the halfway point I was certain that I was seeing the vanity project of some untested young filmmaker with plenty of moxie but little experience; oh the many, many talking head shots that grew tiresome to see. I was therefore surprised to learn that the director had made nine films prior to Perestroika and that he was 69 years old when he made it.

This movie presents a storyline that should have been far more interesting. And the first 20 or so minutes are interesting but then it just falls flat on it's face and becomes dull dull dull.

The director threw too many parallels into the mix. There is the symbolism with physics, political issues, religion, sex, family, etc.! And all that is what Sasha Greenberg drags himself through to come to the conclusion "you can't go back because everything is in constant change" or something like that.

Boring at best, is all I can say. And too much use of green screen setting to make it look like other places. It just made the movie look cheap. Plus their 'writers budget' must have been very little!