I found it incredibly hard to care about either the grandmother or the young men and, since there is no plot to hold your interest, torpor ensues.
Comment
12/07/07
Alexandra (2008)
92
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:51
Fresh:47
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: At once ethereal and tangible, Aleksandr Sokurov's humane Chechen War drama features a spectacular turn by opera star Galina Vishnevskay.
Theatrical Release:Mar 26, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: From the director of Russian Ark, a viscerally powerful new film starring opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya. --© Cinema Guild
Reviews for Alexandra
[Sokurov is one of the] very few filmmakers with the technique, style, and sheer will to create strange, instantly accessible worlds that not only draw the viewer in, but also remain in the mind as places worthy of revisiting.
04/10/08
His sepia images of war's futility are beautiful, and Vishnevskaya's face is a compelling one, but they cannot compensate for the soporific anti-narrative.
09/26/08
Perhaps Sokurov's film will leave some viewers as weary as its protagonist, but this intimate and evocative journey through war is well worth taking.
09/19/08
Sokurov’s sentimental poetry embroiders a nation’s personal connections to the military; he shows the ineffable grace that contemporary American filmmakers are too pent up to grant us -- truths about fealty that our movies neglect.
04/09/08
... at times humorous, at times touching, and unfortunately, at times tedious and distancing.
06/09/08
Every woman with a child in the military dreams about the mysterious environs of war into which her child has disappeared. Such a dream is the subject of Alexander Sokurov's astonishing Alexandra.
07/18/08
Interesting look at life in the Russian military, but to what purpose?
07/20/08
A bone-weariness pervades every inch of the film; even the light is bleached dry of vitality.
09/26/08
hits on something painful and intrinsically human: the feeling of inevitable disillusionment
03/25/08
Without mounting a soap box, the film makes eloquent points about the struggle.
04/17/08
Sokurov applies a thoughtful, humanist spin to the Chechen war – or any war – in this quiet mediation.
11/17/07
To laud [Alexander] Sokurov’s latest film for being accessible is faint praise, as if the fact that you don’t need a Ph.D. in Russian history to watch it constitutes its worthiness.
03/27/08
This is war as stalemate, with Aleksandr Burov’s bleached images creating an alien landscape in which colour is as rare as compassion. Rarely has combat seemed so savage or futile.
09/26/08
An unusual masterpiece atmospheric anti-war film that is an example of cinema as pure feeling.
09/28/09
Sokurov is able to say things about the terrible conflict without obvious polemic but to the maximum possible effect. That’s largely why he is one of the most audacious and original directors in the world today.
09/26/08
Though not a top-notch Sokurov, his new film is a conceptually fascinating meditation on war seen from the perspective of an older woman who visits the battle front.
05/27/07
Eccentric and tender, it is a picture out for grace rather than polemics, and it finds enough to make one see emotional intimacy anew
08/27/09
One of those pure films that's devoid of excess and overstatement...simple but searing.
07/29/08
There's not a shot fired in the film, but it pierces the heart nonetheless.
04/11/08
Latest News for Alexandra
September 07, 2007:
Toronto Film Fest, Day 2: Reviews of Rendition and Alexandra
I mentioned yesterday I was expecting to post a Juno review, but I was also expecting for something at some point to go wrong. What went right: I saw Juno. What went wrong: I... More...
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