The Russian film “Fool's Day” (reviews call it a free interpretation of Gogol's “The Examiner”) turned out to be a real funny comedy with a moralizing instructive meaning. The general producer of the film Timur Bekmambetov is quite well known to a wide cinema audience in domestic films: “The Irony of Fate. Continuation "and the fantastic action movie" Black Lightning ". It was he who managed to attract professional star masters of the scene into the picture: Alexander Lykov (the dashing “Streets of Broken Lights”, the legendary “Turkish Gambit”) and Alexander Vorobyov (“Courier from Paradise”, “Disappeared”).
Plot
Almost all the reviews, reviews for the film "April Fool's Day" contain a brief description of the plot. According to him, the main character Ivan (Alexey Veselkin, Jr.), who occupies the position of a doorman, has more than a modest income. Therefore, the young man managed to owe a decent amount to the bank, and one day a demanding collector named Sergey (Alexander Lykov) is in his heart. In order to avoid physical reprisal, the hero invents a rich dad for himself, who does not cost anything to pay off his son’s debt. The collector, not taking the guy’s word for word, requires a personal acquaintance with his father, so the characters of the film go on a long car journey. By chance, fellow travelers get into the provincial town of Verkhny Sapozhok, where they come into conflict with representatives of law enforcement agencies and find themselves in the police. And here the film "April Fool's Day" (testimonials to that evidence) ceases to be languid. Since at this very time, the thoroughly corrupt mayor of the town of Makhov (Alexander Vorobyov) learns through his channels that auditors from Moscow are going to Verkhny Sapozhok, who are preparing material for the upcoming investigation. And since there are no other visitors, except for the unfortunate Sergey and Ivan, they, of course, are mistaken for Moscow inspectors.
The secret to the success of the movie "Fool's Day"
Reviews of the film emphasize that its success lies in the fact that the creator-director Alexander Baranov simply brilliantly manages to construct the most absurd scenes generated by Gogol's plot and adapted to our chaotic modernity. At the same time, the creative tandem of the director and screenwriters does not rely solely on the writer’s classic jokes. And he is not trying to transfer to the cinema of the 21st century the clearly outdated and incomprehensible contemporary details of the narrative. The authors fundamentally bear a funny gag, but in terms of satire and humor, it turns out to be, if not at the high level of an immortal comedy, then certainly at the level of paintings that I want to review repeatedly. So appreciated the comedy "April Fool's Day" reviews of disc buyers who purchased this film for this very purpose.
Claims
Leading domestic film critics, in general, giving the film a positive rating, could not resist claims to the director and the ensemble. Most viewers note the fact that the romantic line of the picture is crumpled, and therefore - unconvincing. Therefore, the film "April Fool's Day" (reviews of the film are simply full of comments on this subject) can not be called a romantic comedy. It is very problematic to imagine the mayoral and wayward daughter of the mayor (Antonin Divin) capable, literally at a second glance, of falling in love with a guy who demands that she be given to him as a wife. Lykova and the audience, and sophisticated connoisseurs praise to heaven, but Alexander Vorobyov is called unconvincing in the role of the owner of the town. He expertly realizes himself in separate comedy episodes, but he is terribly lacking in scope and pathos for those fragments in which Makhov is positioned as a tragic character. Well, he does not pull on the main city tyrant. Therefore, the film "April Fool's Day", reviews of which are extremely controversial, cannot compete with a literary prototype.
Ridiculous epilogue
Immediately it is worth noting that the filmmakers frankly failed in the epilogue, the competition with the mute Gogol scene was disastrously lost. But the fact that the film "April Fool's Day" (reviews from critics and viewers are unanimous in opinion) turned out to be ridiculous, and most importantly, with an edifying sense - it is difficult to deny. In it, the main character, such a modern modified Khlestakov, not only felt in his own skin all the "charms" of corruption, but also made the right conclusions. And this can not but rejoice.