Brilliant in every aspect, from score through to casting. Better than the book.
shareNO way is it better than the book.
the book is nothing short of brilliant. perhaps Le Carre's best. it ranks up there anyways. the book i mean.
the movie is good, no doubt but the book IS better.IMHO
I havn't seen the film, but i have just read the novel, and the casting in the film looks appalling to me. michelle pfeifer and sean connery as Katya and Barley..... what is that about
shareThe book is one LeCarre's best I believe. The film........I don't think so. I can see that some folks have managed to be moved by the story and thats a tribute to the script, that is the novel. I thought Connery was COMPLETELY unconvincing, Pheiffer was fairly adequate, God forbid they actually find a Russian actess, and the rest of the cast was uninspired. Why were they uninspired...because of the direction. The pace of the film was too fast for a LeCarre novel, the only decent film version of LeCarre that I've seen was the british television miniseries of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy starring the great Alec Guiness, who was really a most inappropriate George Smiley but still managed to pull it off better than probably anyone else could, its an impossible character. What I'm getting at is like any great novel The Russia House doesn't trnasfer well to the screen, it is too deep for the medium. Perhaps another serious effort NOT aimed at the masses like TTSP would get closer to a true success, something not cast according to star power or controlled by "suits". Maybe someday, some day
shareI had doubts about Pfeifer, too, but she ends up stealing the show as Katya. And Connery, too, captures the boozyness and free spirit of Barley. Having been to Russia three times, the way they capture the scenery in and around St. Petersburg and Moscow, especially the beautiful Metro stations, makes the movie worth seeing more than once.
shareIt is my favorite movie of all time. I have read the book and would have to agree if I didn't watch the movie first and have sean connery as "blair" in my head the book wouldn't be as good....great film all around...people who didn't like this film probably love all michael bay films. to bad they don't make movies like this anymore, no wonder sean connery retired from acting....
shareYeah, no wonder Connery retired from the movies at the early age of 83...
LOL! Sometimes we forget to think before we speak. Don't worry, Kubrick74, I do it too.
The decent film. A good film indeed, not the best, of course, and a rare example of Russia portrayed amazingly correctly, with no exaggerations of the infamous "exotic" sides of the Russian life (known as "klyukva" in Russia). There are no such things in reality, you'll never see Kazachok or Kalinka Malinka except for on stage. Life's a life, just like it's shown in this film. As a Russian I didn't really like Pfeiffer's et al pseudo-Russian accents (yet these are quite close to genuine), as well as a whole lot of incorrectly placed stresses in the Russian words. Anyways, it's all forgivable. Except for the unbearable intelligence characters with their insolent jabber it's a good film to watch. Oh, nearly forgot: "Katya Borisovna" sounds hilarious. Since patronymic is basically the name of one's father, it's a "respectful", most formal part of name, it is NEVER used with diminutive first name. It simply cannot. "Katya", "Katerina" (a bit more official) or "Katerina Borisovna" (the most respectful form), no other combinations possible.
shareConsidering how difficult it must be to get the Russian as well as Russian-accented English right for someone who, in all likelihood, has never been in contact with the language, Pfeiffer doesn´t do too badly. Furthermore, it´s kind of hard to explain, but she somehow seems to ´look´ a bit Russian. All in all, it´s a nice, mellow and fairly pretty picture; Connery´s very good and so is Goldsmith´s score. Rated it 7/10.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I liked it even more than the book.
"What I don't understand is how we're going to stay alive this winter."
I loved the attention to detail.
Pfeiffer's russian, russian mannerisms, russian accent, russian clothes (but western make-up. Even a hedgehog could see that.)
From front to back, attention to detail was amongst the best I've seen in any genre. See, Hollywood, you can do it if you try!
WARNING!
Objects under T-shirt are larger than they appear!