Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

moonspinner55 Chicago journalist in Moscow, the American news correspondent to the Soviet Union, becomes smitten with a bubbly young woman who has an elderly benefactor but no working papers (she sells her body to make ends meet); it doesn't take much for him to convince her that capitalism suits her better than communism. Terrible vehicle for Goldie Hawn, who nevertheless was reportedly quite proud of this misbegotten romantic drama, adapted from the book by George Feifer. Hawn, speaking (and singing!) with a wobbly Russian accent, is still easier to take than Hal Holbrook, more cranky and nasal than usual. Anthony Hopkins shows them both up as Hawn's flamboyant friend, although there isn't much of a role there. Filmed in Vienna, the picture certainly looks good, but the characters are simply not engaging. *1/2 from ****

movie-enthusiast When a great actor performs, his performance may be so convincing that the audience may not recognize him. So it is with Anthony Hopkins and his character Kostya. His face is in front of you, but it's a few minutes before you realize it is Anthony Hopkins. For this performance alone you should watch the film. But, there's more... Goldie Hawn plays a serious character. Her eastern European accent is done well and her acting is impressive. The story begins with Joe (Hal Holbrook),a middle-aged journalist, who has won some literary awards and is currently working in Moscow for an American newspaper. His much missed ex-wife has recently died and there are a few things of hers in his apartment so he decides to sell them. He asks Kostya, a local friend and informal broker, to help sell her possessions. At this rummage sale is where our story gets moving. Oktyabrina (Goldie) is a young Russian woman who is in Moscow without papers. She is mysterious. She holds her friends at a distance while she flits around with her own mostly unknown agenda. Joe is immediately entranced. He finds out that a kindly Russian official (Gregoire Aslan) is seeing her. Though Kostya is "spoken for", he is Oktyabrina's friend and helps her from time to time. Though it ends sadly in a somewhat abrupt way, it is well worth watching. note: There is a Swedish DVD in widescreen. You must have a player capable of playing Region 2, PAL, discs of course. When you insert the disc into the player, pick a Scandinavian language to get to the main menu and then you can remove the subtitles.

mkhnreznik The film is excellent. It invoked my personal associations of living in the USSR at the time shown in the film.At that time I was a so-called "refusenick', i.e. a person whose application for emigration was denied. One of my close friend, a lady whose name was Nadezhda (Nadya) Fradkova, was imprisoned for the same reason as Oktyabrina from the movie was: a so-called "parasitic" way of life. She was sentenced to two years in labor camps. It happened in December 1984 - 10 years after the film was released. At that time I was fighting the Soviets in the courtrooms and was able to acquire significant judicial knowledge. That knowledge helped me to fight for Nadya and to prove her innocence. In my own archive I keep original documents from the Soviets illustrating my fight for Nadya, the fight that occurred to be successful. Another association with the main character of the film, a very painful association, was a loss of my dear friend. She was allowed to emigrate, and I was doomed to fight for my freedom for the next 10 years. My best wishes to Goldie Hawn whose performance was above any praise. If I could only tell her my admiration with her performance along with my own history, the history which resembles so much the one of the film. I sorry only for seeing that film so late and only by accident. Mark Reznik. mkhnreznik@comcast.net.

es_sen A romantic Tragedy with comic elements, this underrated early Goldie Hawn feature is set in Russia during the Cold War (a very serious and cynical place). Goldie's conflicted character, Oktyabrina, appears mostly as a silly young woman, beautiful but fickle. While she is very interested in older men, there are also signs that she has been deeply hurt by them. Through most of the movie she is a puzzle and a pain, especially to her co-star (Hal Holbrook as Joe, an older American journalist), who has trouble seeing through her carefree facade. What is wrong with her? Does she feel unworthy? Is she too jaded? Can she overcome her issues? Her behavior regarding willingness to risk and sacrifice is both fascinating and informative. But perhaps Soviet Russia is simply too brutal a place for love. Will Joe give up on her?A good 'chick flick', this film also has interesting Cold War elements such as "official truth" (pravda) and the relationships between Oktyabrina's men which lead me to rate it as a 'date movie' also. Definitely worth seeing, this love story breaks the stereotype, showing a woman running from intimacy. Simultaneously, it examines the timeless question 'if you can't feel innocent, how can you fall in love?'