As the pop diva Claudia Shulzhenko once sang: “Don’t talk about love, everything is said about it ...”. Guided by this principle, the famous Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev made a motion picture about dislike in 2017. Shortly after the premiere, the project caused a lot of controversy. Let's find out more about the film “Dislike” (content, reviews from critics and viewers, ratings), and also consider the most significant problems raised by Zvyagintsev in this work.
"Dislike" by Andrei Zvyagintsev
This social drama was shot according to the original script by Oleg Negin and Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Work on the project was started in 2015 and lasted until the beginning of April 2017. At the same time, installation began when the filming was still in full swing.
Despite these field conditions, by mid-April a working version of the picture was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. She was well received by European audiences. Based on their positive reviews of the film "Dislike," she was awarded a special prize by the jury of the festival.
Such high ratings led to the fact that the rights to rent a tape were acquired by the UK, France, Belgium, Germany and other countries.
main characters
The plot focuses on middle-aged spouses who are about to get a divorce. It is precisely on their experiences that the action of the picture is concentrated.
Boris’s husband is a classic average father of the family: he works at an unloved job (sales manager), is mired in loans and is forced to endure the tyranny of his boss so as not to lose his place. By himself, he is not a bad person, but he is very passive and egocentric.
Boris has long had a mistress, Masha. By the beginning of the film, she is in the last months of pregnancy. In this case, the future father pulls with a divorce. He loves Mashenka and hates his wife, but fears that his head obsessed with Orthodox values ​​will dismiss Boris for such an unchristian act.
Wife Zhenya, despite her discreet appearance, well-groomed, pleasant and, in general, not a stupid woman. Unlike Boris, more energetic and purposeful. But, like him, she focuses only on her desires.
Zhenya’s mother lives in the suburbs. However, the woman does not communicate with her. The fact is that, like Eugene, her mother at one time did not love her daughter and turned the girl’s life into hell. In an effort to break out of it, Eugene jumped out to marry the first guy that came across - Boris, barely getting pregnant from him. At the same time, she admits that she did not like either her husband or their son Alyosha who was born to them.
All the years of marriage, this heroine lived without love, feeling miserable and blaming others around her - mother, husband and son.
Over time, she managed to find a wealthy lover - Anton. He is the embodiment of the ideal of Eugenia. He does not smoke, hardly drinks, is in good physical shape and is able to provide her a comfortable life. From a previous marriage, Anton has an adult daughter, but she studies in Europe and is not a hindrance.
The son of the main characters - Alyosha. He is a smart but overly emotional boy. Feeling that his parents do not love him, he does not complain and is not capricious, but withdraws into himself. The trouble is that the father and mother do not even notice this, because they do not care about his friends or hobbies. After all, the main thing is that he study well and deliver as little trouble as possible.
Zhenya's mother is a lonely and angry woman. She loved neither her daughter nor her grandson, and all her life she was afraid that they would hang on her the care of one of them.
The direct opposite to her is Masha’s mother. She, on the contrary, is very close with her daughter (as shown by numerous photos on the refrigerator) and takes care of her well-being.
Ivan is the coordinator of the volunteer search and rescue team. This person and his subordinates are selflessly engaged in helping to find the missing people. And they do it "for that."
Plot
After a long marriage, Alyosha’s parents are going to divorce. Each of them has already found a new soul mate and now only two questions remain unresolved: how to quickly sell the apartment and with whom the boy will live.
Boris already has a second baby on his way, so neither him nor his new beloved Masha cares about Alyosha. Moreover, lovers plan to live in a tiny apartment of the girl’s mother. For this reason, Boris wants Zhenya to take his son, as is usually the case with divorces.
At the same time, Eugene is against having the child shoved onto her. Moreover, her beloved Anton is no longer young and wants to live for himself, and not to mess with someone else's son.
Since no one wants to give in, Eugene decides that they will send his son to a boarding school, arguing that "he doesn’t soon get into the army, let him get used to it."
Alyosha hears this conversation and leaves the house the next day and disappears.
Parents are so passionate about their love affairs that they notice the loss of their son only on the second day, and even when they are called from school.
Zhenya calls the police, but seeing their inaction, asks for help from volunteers. They quickly and skillfully organize searches. It turns out that neither Boris nor his wife really know anything about their child and can do little to help in the search.
After a couple of days, they find the mutilated body of a boy similar to Alyosha. On identification, the parents claim that this is not their child. This minimizes the search.
Epilogue: two years pass. The couple divorced, the apartment is sold, and new tenants make repairs in it.
Boris married Masha, and the four of them are now huddled in her mother’s tiny two-room apartment. He is absolutely indifferent to the new child, as well as to Alyosha.
Eugene lives in a civil marriage with Anton in his luxurious apartment. They have no common children. Despite the fact that her dreams have come true, the heroine continues to feel miserable.
Issue
In his new picture, Andrei Zvyagintsev managed to touch on a mass of important problems that modern society is used to turning a blind eye to.
First of all, this is the desire for external well-being to the detriment of everything else. For example, Zhenya all the time wants to be "in trend." Instead of caring for the family or her spiritual and cultural development, she spends all the time on beauty salons and uploading photos about her “happy” life on the Internet. The woman is so withdrawn from herself that she is not only indifferent to her son, but also to her husband’s loans (some of which she obviously spent herself), as well as to her lover’s problems with his daughter.
Another important issue raised in the picture is general indifference. The disappearance of Alyosha in this vein looks like litmus paper, which makes each of the characters show their true essence.
Eugene at first worried about her son. She organizes an active search, but later withdraws from the problem. And while volunteers are looking for Alyosha, they are given carnal joys in the arms of Anton. By the way, he also does not care about the loss of the child of his beloved woman, although at the same time he bitterly experiences the indifference of his adult daughter to him.
Boris becomes involved in the search against his will, because he did not even want to contact the police, believing that his son would return home. Closer to the finale, it seems that he repented. But when fate gives him a chance to redeem his past with a new child, the hero continues to behave all the same indifferently.
By the way, his beloved Masha is the same selfish person. Upon learning of the disappearance of the son of a beloved man, she only worries about whether Boris will go to her or stay with her wife.
Teacher Alyosha is not at all worried about the disappeared student. Her thoughts and concerns are concentrated only on how to quickly go home.
Contrast to all these characters are volunteers. While the boy’s parents solve their heart problems, these people spare neither the strength nor the time to find the child.
With this indifference of almost all the main characters to the fate of Alyosha, the general concern about the end of the world in 2012 or military operations in the neighboring state looks rather tragic.
And, of course , one of the main problems of the film is love, or rather, its absence.
Virtually none of the heroes is able to love anyone but himself. Even Zhenya, who often talks about the search for love, is in reality as indifferent to Anton’s experiences as he is to her.
And Masha, who at first seems to genuinely love Boris (after several years of living with him), prefers to sit on the Internet than to chat with her husband or calm her crying child.
The thread of maternal love runs through the entire ribbon with a red thread. The tape is knocked out of the total mass of film production, convincing the audience that the desire to take care of their offspring is an inborn maternal instinct. Zvyagintsev shows that in fact, not every mother loves her child. And in this case we are talking not about alcoholics or drug addicts, but about intelligent , adequate women, like Masha, Zhenya, their friends and acquaintances.
The only exception is Masha’s mother, however, even in the finale she shows her indifference when she ignores the cry of her grandson in the arena.
How critics and viewers met the picture
Having figured out the plot and the problems of this tape, it’s worth going to the main question and learning about the reviews of critics about the film “Dislike”.
Almost everyone who looked at the picture noted that it was unable to leave indifferent. The majority of Russian critics accepted this project with enthusiasm as reflecting the actual situation in modern society.
For example, the famous Russian journalist and film critic Anton Dolin, after watching the picture, appreciated the masterful use of the socio-political situation to create a particularly realistic emotional background.
And the film commentator of Komsomolskaya Pravda Stas Tyrkin called Zvyagintsev's brainchild a “diagnosis of the disease of modern Russian life.”
Critic Tatyana Shorokhova called the film “a thriller about an unhappy marriage,” and also encouraged viewers to learn how to love characters like Zhenya and Boris. Since it is precisely such an unmotivated and undeserved feeling that can become the life-giving medicine that can save not only their family, but also modern society as a whole.
As for ordinary viewers, they perceived the tape in different ways.
In many reviews of the film "Dislike," their authors openly admit that they could not understand this project. Those who were not ready to admit that they had not yet reached the cinema of Zvyagintsev often called his work too long and boring.
At the same time, in other reviews of the audience about the film "Dislike," one can find numerous praises to him for realism and the image of important problems, without cuts and pathos.
Directly, the style of the painting itself is often compared by critics and viewers with Leviathan. At the same time, it is noted that in "Dislike" the director was significantly more distanced from his characters and what is happening to them, leaving the audience to judge or excuse the characters themselves.
Often criticized in the reviews of the film "Dislike" succumbed to the excessive sadness of the interiors, exteriors and landscapes of the tape. However, the majority of the audience perceived this depression as a successful directorial move, which made the audience believe the events in the picture, as if they were happening now in the next house.
Ratings
Although the tape was received positively in the Russian Federation, many viewers were interested to know what reviews about the film Zvyagintsev “Loveless” (residents of far abroad).
On the popular resource Rotten tomatoes, 31 reviews are devoted to this picture, of which only 3 are negative. Visitors to the site from different parts of the world in their reviews of the film "Dislike" call it touching and lively.
Thanks to such a warm welcome, the rating of the painting today is 90%. For comparison, visitors to the same resource rated “Wonder Woman” at 92%.
On Kinopoisk, there were much more reviews about the film "Dislike" - 180. Of these, 138 were positive, 15 were neutral, and very few were negative. By the way, the overall rating of the project at Kinopoisk is 81%. What can I say: "There are no prophets in his middle name ...".
The film "Dislike": reviews of the plot and the finale
Particular attention in the reviews of this tape is given to the discussion of its plot. Both supporters and opponents agree that everything that happens is overly realistic.
At the same time, many people in reviews of Zvyagintsev's film “Dislike” charge the director with a slurred finale. In their opinion, the secret of the future fate of Alyosha should have been revealed, otherwise the impression of a tattered narrative remains.
In response to similar criticism, other viewers in reviews of the film "Dislike" note that perhaps the boy in the morgue - this was the son of Boris and Zhenya. And the heroes recognized him, but were not ready to accept his death, although she actually untied her hands. That is why they cried like that and refused to do a DNA test.
Still very often there is a discussion of the question: "Found a boy?" in reviews of the movie "Dislike." The most insane theories on this subject are put forward, including the one that Alyosha survived, and when he grows up he will return to take revenge on his parents.
Some representatives of the audience say that the incompleteness of this storyline is a clever directorial experiment by Zvyagintsev on the audience. Indeed, many of them, instead of worrying: “Found a boy?”, In reviews of the film “Dislike” they discuss sexual scenes in the picture. It turns out that not only the characters of the tape, but also those who watch it are sick with indifference.
Among the other discussed issues of the plot is the film epilogue. Viewers argue about whether it is needed at all. Indeed, without him, everyone still has the hope that, having survived the loss of a child, Zhenya and Boris will change for the better and try not to repeat past mistakes.
The film "Dislike": reviews about the actors
A special topic for discussion is the selection of artists. If many people are familiar with Alexei Rozin (Boris) from Zvyagintsev’s previous works (starring in Leviathan and Elena), then Mariyana Spivak (Zhenya) first appeared on the film horizon of this director.
A lot of complaints in the reviews of the film "Dislike" was due to the fact that almost all the main characters have a prosaic appearance. This is despite the fact that many episodic characters are very good-looking (like, for example, girls taking selfies in a restaurant).
Some of the audience (who were satisfied with the cast) note the excellent speech of all the characters. After all, it is no secret to anyone that it is impossible to listen to a good half of the actors who star in contemporary Russian cinema . And the point here is not only the accent, but also the poorly set diction, and simply the unpleasant timbre of the voice.
Opinions about sex scenes in the tape
In separate reviews of Zvyagintsev’s film “Dislike”, its author is accused of a huge number of frank scenes, which are not always obligatory. Also, viewers complain that sex itself in the picture is shown too household, or rather, banal.
In fairness, it is worth noting that in this regard the tape corresponds to the best European film traditions, while the American viewers spoiled the domestic audience (in which lovemaking takes place in an overly picturesque way, to the pathos music, which is very far from real life). In most modern European elite films, sexual relations are removed in much the same way as in Zvyagintsev.
By the way, some attentive viewers in their reviews of the film “Dislike” noted that the sex scene between Boris and the pregnant Masha was probably borrowed from the 2005 Munich film.
Will this picture get an Oscar? Viewers Opinions
Having considered the positive and negative aspects that are most discussed in the audience’s reviews about Zvyagintsev’s film “Dislike”, it’s worth turning to the main issue that concerns all of them today. So, will the picture receive the long-awaited Oscar in the category "Best Foreign Language Film"?
Those who doubt the award of such a prestigious prize to Zvyagintsev’s new creation argue their opinion that the tape is “too Russian”. Therefore, due to different cultural traditions, members of the film academy simply may not fully understand the picture, as happened with Leviathan. In addition, Americans love happy endings, albeit not very realistic. And in "Dislike" - complete hopelessness.
More optimistic viewers (who believe that the painting will receive the coveted statuette) fend off that “Burnt by the Sun” by Mikhalkov (unlike the film “Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears” by Menshov) also had a completely unhappy ending, and this did not stop her from earning an Oscar ".
Which of them is right, who is wrong - it will become known in 2018.