Most people fall in love and get married, but one man does it the other way around in this romantic comedy from Australia. Harvey (Hugo Weaving) is a private detective who derives the bulk of his work from unhappily married people wanting to know if their spouses are being unfaithful. Harvey finds this work depressing and wishes he could quit to devote himself to writing crime fiction. Harvey's career has also given him a rather jaundiced view of romance, which is unfortunately confirmed when
he's hired to keep tabs on a college professor and discovers he's having an affair with one of his students -- who also happens to be Harvey's fiancée. Harvey's best friend is a publishing executive named Ethan (David Wenham), who is happily married to Miriam (Rebecca Frith). Or that's what Harvey thinks; he soon learns the truth when Ethan confesses he's been having a passionate affair with Katia (Natalia Novikova), a beautiful woman from Russia. Katia's visa is about to expire, and Ethan is desperate to keep her from going back to Russia; the easiest way to allow her to stay in Australia would be to marry her, but Ethan doesn't want to divorce Miriam just yet. Instead, Ethan offers to make a deal with Harvey -- Ethan will pay him a large amount of money if he'd be willing to wed Katia. While Harvey is not enthusiastic about the idea, the money would allow him to stay home and write, so he reluctantly agrees. But after a few weeks of marriage, Harvey finds himself falling in love with his wife, and he begins looking for a way to steal her away from Ethan. Russian Doll won the prize for Best Original Screenplay at the 2000 Australian Film Institute Awards. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
A talky, plodding romantic comedy in which the viewer is just waiting for the obvious plot twist to happen. And when it does, it's too unconvincing to feel satisfying.
Russian Doll is cute movie about a Australian man who is having an affair with a Russian women whos visa is going to end so he asks his best friend to marry her so she would be able to stay. At first Ethan and Katia hate each other, but as time goes on they start to fall for each other which means trouble for Harvey.
Hugo Weaving and David Wenham lacked their usual charisma and depth of character, which was the biggest dissapiontment because I've enjoyed their previous performances.
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