Thursday, April 12, 1C34
Pag 3 10
Daily Nebraskan
atriotism without sermons
ByWardW.Tripkttlll
Don't be fooled by the cluttered, Continental
Divide-inspired ad or Robin Williams's track record.
Moscow on the Hudson is the best post-Oscar
nomination film to open so far.
Paul Mazursky's poignant tale about a Russian
circus musician (Williams) who defects during a
supervised tour of Bloomingdale's isn't perfect by
Film
Review
any means. It's just got to be harder for a Soviet to
defect and adjust than the film lets on. It's also
shamelessly patriotic at points.
But Moscow's appeal is that while it's a constant,
light comedy about the lives of ethnic minorities in
New York, it also gets a sense of fear and danger
from each of its main characters about their new
lives. While Williams (as Vladimir) has to constantly
worry about KGB agents, his Italian girlfriend Lucia
(Maria Conchado Alonzo) loves New York but has
trouble leaving Italy behind, and his black roommate
Lionel (Clevant Derricks), who can relate to
Vladimir's situation since he too is a foreigner in
New York (he's from Alabama), has to deal with not
being able to be a father to his daughter in Alabama.
tiut through the seriousness, Vladimir and Lucia
have a not-so-typical movie love affair that takes
over much of the middle part of the movie. The
characters grow together as Vladimir tries to adjust
to the capitalist system (including serving time as a
waiter and selling everything from watches to hot
dogs in Central Park), and apart as both try to
become American.
As a comedy, Moscow works because of Williams.
The former Mork, Garp and whoever that guy was in
the Survivors is in his best role yet here. Vladimir's
understated humor fits the old multi-dimensional
Williams from Mork quite well. Behind him, Derricks,
late of the Broadway production of Dream Girls
simply has a strong role to work with in Lionel, while
Alonzo, who also wrote one of the film's original
songs, has a winner of a role as well. Both she and
Derricks create friends in Lucia and Lionel that
transcend Vladimir and hits the audience directly.
The three major characters are supported by an
almost 100 percent ethnic cast. Perhaps that helped
make the film so likeable. We always get white
American lifestyles in these films, but Moscow's
approach, which shows off the cultural bag big cities
really are, is refreshing and quite a joy to see.
Moscow smacks of one of those semi-classics that
attempts to teach as much as it attempts to enter
tain. But the overall impact of it doesn't set in until
after it's over, as Mazursky thankfully avoided many
sermons about how wrong the Soviet or American
lifestyles are. Instead, the good and the bad are for
the most part implicit with Williams' auirkincss and
awkward balancing between his past and present
means of relating the message that the good in this
country outweighs the bad by quite a bit.
On that note, Moscow's patriotism makes it the
strongest pro-United States film since, well whatever
the last John Wayne war movie was, I guess. At one
point, as Williams laments to his Cuban lawyer
(Orlando Ramiriz) about his struggles and how
freedom wasn't a reality for all, he encounters
another former Russian, who disagrees. After a
confrontation, the Russian has Williams recite the
first line of the Constitution. Next thing you know,
everyone in the place is reciting a line.
Ordinarily, that would have come off as corny,
trite and laughable. But in the context of the film, it's
sort of the culmination of the swelling pride Vladimir
has in just being in the country.
It must have also gotten to some other members
of the audience at the Cinema 2 as well. Several
people started reading the lines with the actors,
which I found myself doing almost immediately.
Moscow on the Hudson isn't the type of movie that
ends up with center stage on Oscar night. But if you
can't remember the last time you left a movie feeling
good about yourself and this country, this is the best
ticket in town.
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Robin Williams contemplates America in Moscow on the Hudson.
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