Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Dreadfully Boring

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

In this film, the main character, Andrey Buzykin (played by Oleg Basilashvili), finds himself struggling to manage his hectic work life and spending time with his wife, Nina (played by Natalya Gundareva), and mistress, Alla (played by Marina Neyolova). As an English to Russian translator, Andrey is not responsible for the creative material. He merely translates what others have already written. This, along with his inability to say "no" to his boss' requests, portrays him as a weak man, incapable of managing his own life. Additionally, Andrey is an educated man living in a rather large apartment for the times, yet his life appears to be going nowhere. This only further solidifies idea of him being an inferior man. Similar to his job, his wife hardly notices him. Because of this, Andrey has found a mistress. With all of these people in his life, the main character struggles to please everybody. This film, classified as a drama-comedy, is great, as it shows life in Leningrad during the Soviet Era. The man is a part of the intelligentsia, the educated middle class. Additionally, cultural references are present throughout the film and includes such items as mushroom picking and communal living.

Centered on a well-meaning Professor, Autumn Marathon shows the chaos that ensues when one cannot learn to say no to himself, and therefore to others around him. Professor Andrey Pavlovich Buzykin is manipulated by everyone around him, especially the women in his life. His mistress Alla is constantly pestering him about having children with her and leaving his wife, Nina. Nina is clearly well-aware that her husband is lying to her and most likely cheating, so she manipulates Andrey into feeling sorry for her by moping around the house and saying that no one needs her. His fellow writer Varvara uses him and adds to his web of lies as he helps her translate, which will cause her to take his place with the publishers. Basically, the whole film is sometimes painful to watch because Andrey's lies to his wife and mistress become more complicated with each scene. At the end, he seems to be peaceful when both women finally leave him, but at practically the same moment, his mistress calls and his wife comes back home. In the final scene of this dizzying chaos, Andrey hasn't learned his lesson and lies to his mistress that his wife has left and lies to his wife that he left his mistress. In my Russian Film class, we discussed how Andrey really isn't that bad of a guy and just wants to please everyone, but as a grown man, he should know better. Throughout the film, it is clear that his lies hurt everyone around him and make his current life almost impossible to keep up with. I wish the film would have ended with him starting anew, but alas, this ending is much more in line with the reality that the older we get, the less likely we are to change.

This movie is very slow to get going, so slow I could compare it to a turtle stuck in molasses. If there was an American movie I would compare it to, it would be "The Vow". I enjoyed neither. Both are about menial life issues. Everyone has these issues in their life. I don't watch movies to get more of my life's problems. I watch to escape reality and partake in an adventure. The main character aggravates me with his inability to stand for anything. It bothers me that he can not tell the truth. The back drops and scenes were designed very well. At times in the movie I would find myself not paying attention to the story and characters, but watching the back drop of the city, imagining if I lived there.

Niffiwan from Toronto is not right (Interesting to note is that the director was female). The director is male and strong Caucasian macho with mustaches, born in Georgia. By the way Georgi is the name, like George. There is a rumor that heroes of his movies have latency homosexual complex but it is just a joke. But who knows? The film is pure genius. This is the story about soviet intellectual (not an average soviet man from Brezhnev's era), English to Russian interpreter, who read some lectures in some university. He live in a big apartment with many rooms - it is very unusual situation in Soviet Union for family with one child (the hero have one daughter). This is the symbol of privileged position for brain workers in Sovet Union society. But his work is silly and insignificant. He is in trouble with his slinky mistress (genius actress Marina Neelova), smart and understanding wife (also genius Natalya Gundareva, RIP), colleagues and so on. The problems are snowball running and his life is start to decline. This is not a comedy - this is a sad story that may be associated with brothers' Cohen movie "Fargo" or something like that. The quality of actors play is brilliant and absolutely realistic. I strongly recommended another Danelia astonishing film called "Kin-Dza-Dza" (strange adventures of mid-aged soviet foreman and his accidental fellow young Moscow student on another planet, kinda postapocaliptic totalitaristic Mad Max style world - the strong satire on all human civilization)