A rare domestic film (especially the series) receives such a huge public outcry as the 2017 TV show of Channel One was noted. The film “Sleeping” (2017) is a joint production product of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, performed by producer F. Bondarchuk, director Yu. Bykov and script writer S. Minaev.
The creators and the main idea
Aggressive critics characterized the series as an incompletely thought-out and awkwardly played patriotic multi-part epic about exposing a foreign espionage organization that was determined to undermine Russia's stability from within. Therefore, their reviews of the film "Sleeping" are far from the best. The undoubted advantage of the project is the participation in its creation of the amazing director Yuri Bykov, the author of the full-length “Fool” and “Major”. On TV, the director also proved himself perfectly, having shot the gloomy "Method".
The genre of the series is declared as a "spy detective." Screenwriter and writer Sergei Minaev claimed that before work he was inspired by watching the Soviet cult serial film "TASS is authorized to declare" and the American project "Homeland". According to reviews of the film Sleeping, the theme of the confrontation between the CIA and the FSB slides through the whole story, and the main character, Colonel Rodionov (actor Igor Petrenko), easily plugs James Bond into his belt with his elegance and masculinity.
The main intrigue and its implementation
The main spy idea of the series is that the governments of China and the Russian Federation are going to conclude an agreement on the supply of natural gas. The upcoming agreement is kept secret, so that enemies could not prevent a mutually beneficial agreement between the two countries. The deal is overseen by the FSB. In response, the CIA, in order to find out the details of the agreement, decides to use its “sleeping” agents, which have long been introduced into various Russian departments. In addition to the main plot plot, the plot contains branches about the terrorist act being prepared by the Islamists, about the confrontation between the security forces and the wars of the oligarchs. With such a significant complication, the authors make an unforgivable oversight, which is indicated by all the re-readers in the reviews of the film "Sleeping". The series is desperately lacking real drive, energy and adrenaline. Not even impressive is the key scene of the pursuit of the "werewolf in uniform."
In general, the absence of the above could be forgiven if at least one character in the tape was truly colorful and charismatic, capturing the audience’s attention. The actors and the roles of Sleeping, with the exception of Igor Petrenko, who reincarnated as a colonel in the FSB, are not perfectly harmonious with each other. For example, Ivan Zhuravlev, supposedly a journalist for the Zerkalo newspaper, but actually a CIA resident Ethan, was played by Dmitry Ulyanov. The performer in the image of a special agent of American intelligence does not look very convincing. The image of his beloved Andrei Rodionov on the screen was revealed by Natalia Rogozhkina. In separate emotional episodes, the performer desperately replayes. The lover of Ivan, TV presenter Oksana Troitskaya, was played by Paulina Andreeva, and Fedor Bondarchuk appears in the frame in the guise of Deputy Prime Minister.
The characters are not distinguished by a serious study and thorough implementation. Rather, the frame is filled with template characters borrowed from feuilleton, caricatures and parodies.
Not the worst option
Meanwhile, according to reviews of the film, Sleepers deserve to be evaluated from different perspectives, because the project consists not only of patriotic cliches and slogans, it employs an impressive cast, uses a decent budget and technical base.
In our chaotic modernity, one can find an excuse for everything that finds its embodiment on television: talk shows about sex of minors, pseudoscientific programs that interpret the theory of flat earth. Financial gains and ratings have long changed the sense of proportion and taste. In this sad paradigm, the brainchild of Yu. Bykov is not the worst product.