Tom Hardy again. Except this time he has plenty of acting to do.
I'd heard bad things about Tom's Russian accent... but I thought it was OK, and I know some Russians!
One thing that soon becomes apparent, if you didn't know it, is that life under Stalin was one big heap of no fun. There are diktats like "there is no murder in paradise" which is a problem for the people who have to investigate when people die "in terrible accidents". And when people are "named" their only way to survive is to confess to whatever they are accused of and to "name" some other people who are involved.
The film does a good job of conveying the relentless grimness of life in Russia at this time. The distrust. The betrayals.
As a result, it isn't exactly entertaining. Educational, maybe.
So when the ending is a bit less grim than the preceding events, I guess we should be happy that the characters we have come to care for a bit do make it out mostly in one piece.
It's definitely a film that you need to be in the right frame of mind to watch. It's certainly not one to see if you need cheering up. But it will certainly make you appreciate the freedoms we have in the West.
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