House of Fools (2003)
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 48
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 29
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 20
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 12
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 2,861
My Rating
Movie Info
War brings together a disillusioned soldier and a sweet but delusional woman in this romantic comedy-drama from director Andrei Konchalovsky. A small Russian mental hospital near the border of Chechnya is home to a group of eccentric but harmless patients, among them Janna (Julia Vysotsky), a cheerful woman who likes to play accordion and is convinced pop singer Bryan Adams is her fiancé; over-excitable Vika (Marina Politseymako); and highly prolific would-be poet Ali (Stanislav Varkki). When
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Cast
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Bryan Adams
Himself -
Julia Vysotsky
Janna -
Sultan Islamov
Ahmed -
Stanislav Varkki
Ali -
Vladas Bagdonas
Doctor -
Yevgeny Mironov
Soldier -
Elena Fomina
Lucy -
Marina Politseymako
Vika -
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All Critics (50) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (29) | DVD (4)
Vysotsky projects an essential sunniness that helps keep the film from turning maudlin.
Top CriticIt may be based on a true story, but another filmmaker told it before -- and better.
It ultimately feels like a folly that sounded great in the filmmaker's head, so great that he had to be put on screen, where it flounders around with no small degree of embarrassment.
There's not much to Konchalovsky's tale ... but it's often beautifully told; a gentle fantasy of a harsh time.
With its cast of nauseatingly lovable lunatics, House of Fools may make you feel like you've been tricked into suffering through the Kevin Spacey flick K-Pax with subtitles.
Ruined from the start by its insulting depiction of mental illness.
Tiresome!
It's hard to dislike a movie that identifies Russian mental patients as Bryan Adams' core audience.
Janna, played with endearing toughness by Julia Vysotsky, is the heart of this film.
Unbelievably insensitive in its depiction of the mentally ill.
It's an odd mix to combine the harsh reality of war with the surreal world of mental patients. This makes for a bizarre movie, but it has some really tender moments.
War is insane. Insane people are cute. Bryan Adams is God. There, now that you've got these three principles down, you don't need to see House of Fools.
Sub-Fellini nonsense.
The use of Bryan Adams as the madwoman's imagined paramour is indicative of just how mediocre this movie is.
Too disjointed, derivative and stylistically clumsy to be much more than an irritant.
As Janna demonstrates, old assumptions and passions certainly die hard. And the worst is when they don't die at all.
Often trying and not wholly successful but highly ambitious and ultimately rewarding.
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Foreign Titles
- House of Fools (Dom durakov) (DE)
- House of Fools (Dom durakov) (UK)
