deusdat

The main problem with comedy is that it has to be funny. Drama, thriller, SF, horror are easier to do. Being funny is a rare talent.

Obviously this movie tries to be satirical, a bit like "Asterix'. There's lots of hints to nowadays Romania, of course. Unfortunately they hardly make you laugh, or at least smile.

Acting seems somewhat amateurish, gags are poor, the script lacks comedic creativity. It's a jolly highschoolish improvisation by a bunch of friends who have a good time together rather than a well-thought project. And the budget was certainly very very tight.

The only praise all this deserves should be directed to the movie idea itself. Not very original, but still nice and unusual in Romania's film industry (although the term "industry" is probably hyperbolic). It's fresh and unconventional, and the very fact that someone started and completed this production is worth a short applause.

Actually the movie is so bad and predictable that you need a strong will to watch it until the end. Strong will I have not, so at some point I started to wonder whether a story about a guy who misses a certain Ruth wouldn't have been much better. Ruth could be his ex-lover, or his old car (a VW Beetle for instance), or his pet grey african parrot (very intelligent, can talk a lot).

What about a high-school English teacher named Ruth who introduced him to poetry? Or to sex? (Too banal, I know.) Searching for Ruth, dreaming of Ruth, cursing Ruth. Discovering she's a serial killer. Replacing her with Helen.

Unfortunately "Ruthless" is not about Ruth. It's about breaking arms repeatedly, and fingers too. The end.

This so-called movie was written by gluing together quotes and data from various graveyards just like Frankenstein did with his creature. But the poor monster was actually interesting!

We get lectured on the Kardashev-type civilizations, on the fine structure constant, on Edison's true nature, on SETI, on the Arecibo signal, and on many other things that Discovery and National Geographic use to pour onto our heads a bunch of times each year.

Meanwhile the characters are vacuous and the acting amateurish. Which fits together brilliantly with a script lacking any plot or surprise. In fact nothing happens, except for the predictable attempt of the FBI agents in their huge black SUVs to keep the public ignorant of the aliens' existence.

What's Gillian Anderson doing in this tasteless SF soup populated by hopelessly unknown faces? Sure, she starred in "X Files", but that can't be the real reason. More likely she had to pay some big gambling debt. Urgently.