I wish there was a way to just make movies like this go away. They not only waste the time of the viewer but also that of the people involved in the making of the film, the investors, the distributors, and the video stores. There are thousands and thousands of unfilmed scripts and stories floating around and I just don't understand why they shoot such uninspiring movies. At least if you are going to bore me with the story, show me some nudity and blood. As this film was shot in Russia, I suspect there are some tax implications at work here but still even in the heyday of tax shelter films in Canada, most of the stuff had at least something to offer.

Anne Archer stars as Sarah Hathaway, a mother who did not believe in her artist son's dreams. The constant fighting about his chosen profession caused him to leave home in a huff. Ten years later, Sarah gets wind of the fact that her son's paintings may be selling at an auction in St. Petersburg, Russia so she jumps on the next plane. Upon arrival, she goes to the gallery where the art will be displayed and runs into both a mute street kid (Devon Alan) and the gallery owner (Mia Kirshner). After a couple of failed attempts in playing detective, Sarah finds herself in a mental institution where she meets a doctor named Ivan who develops a crush on her and tries to help her find her son. Eventually, most of the mysteries are revealed and we are left as unsatisfied as a chubby kid who dropped his ice cream off the cone.

One of the problems with this flick was that the acting in this one was very uninspired. The leads looked like they were sleepwalking through their roles with the only bright points being Kirshner and Kip Pardue in supporting roles. Archer looked extremely tired and was far from her days starring alongside Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford. The most memorable role I have seen her in was as the clown wife in Altman's Short Cuts but nowadays she just looks fed up. Her voice was also extremely flat and it sounded like an Italian actor being dubbed into English in a Fulci movie. Maybe this is what she was going for but I got more of an impression that she wasn't very interested in the part. We also have an awkward performance by Ukrainian actor Gregory Hlady who appeared to be making somewhat of an effort but sounded like somebody who was unsure of the language. The other supporting cast members were played by Russian actors that were mainly stock characters from a stock thriller. Nothing too exciting here.

I suppose the main person to blame is director Nikolay Lebedev. This is a promising Russian director who, for one reason or another, decided to helm an American movie that was being shot there. I don't know what happened on set but I am thinking there were maybe some communication issues and Lebedev was in a situation he should not have been. Judging from his resume which includes a war movie and an upcoming fantasy, Lebedev is used to handling big budget fare in Russia and seemed a little out of his element trying to bring life to a direct-to-video American cheapie. Why he chose to do this, I do not know. It didn't help that the plot was both confusing and predictable.

On a positive note, the city of St. Petersburg is featured throughout the film with some nice shots of many landmarks. It looks like it would be a great place to visit and would likely make an excellent setting for a movie if it had a decent story. It's too bad this one didn't. (Josh Pasnak, 7/21/06)

Directed By: Nikolay Lebedev.
Written By: Paula Young, Kam Miller.

Starring: Anne Archer, Gregory Hlady, Kip Pardue, Agnes Bruckner.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: This was a decent print with nothing really jumping out at me either way. Most direct to video flicks with a mediocre budget look fairly good.

Extras: All we get here is a trailer, which is perfectly fine since you probably don't want to spend any more time with the movie.

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