Translated material
Samostrok
"Montana" on Russian screens
One noble Russian bandit (artist Oleg Taktarov), in the nineties, like many noble people, was engaged in robbery, during the next raid on a bank he covered a woman with himself, for which he paid: he did not have time to escape from the scene of the crime and went to prison for eight years.Another - not so noble and not quite Russian - bandit (artist Igor Mirkurbanov) escaped arrest, became a successful businessman, and upon the release of Taktarov’s hero from prison he promised to give him a share of $67 million. But, of course, he won’t part with the money I wanted to. Therefore, it was decided to get rid of the hero, and in a very whimsical way: he receives the task of killing the fifty-year-old wife of the American business partner of the hero Mirkurbanov, who harasses her husband with calls to work and reproaches for his adventures with young girls.
And so the potential owner of a multimillion-dollar fortune goes to the United States in the role of a simple killer. Because (and this is the fundamental stone of the plot structure) the characters of Taktarov and Mirkurbanov are friends from the orphanage, together they dreamed of going someday to the American state of Montana - the kingdom of freedom and quick earnings. Taktarov’s hero cannot refuse his friend and, of course, does not yet suspect that after completing the task he must be removed.
Fortunately, the hero does not have to kill anyone (this would destroy his romantic image), and the plan of the insidious friend quickly becomes clear. Fleeing from villains, he runs to where his heart called him in childhood, and along the way he performs various feats: he saves a child, wins the heart of a beautiful lady and executes the unrighteous.
The conquest of the American white woman, like the salvation of the Russian one in his time, did not cost him in vain: the American saw her ideal in Oleg Taktarov and nurtured the most serious intentions regarding him.
The US citizen is played by natural US citizen, actress Scarlett McAlister. At the premiere, the director and producer of the project, Alexander Atanesyan, without yet introducing the actress, repeatedly mentioned a certain Scarlett, which aroused a terrible suspicion in the souls of the audience: was it really that the only Scarlett of modern American cinema who decided to perform in tandem with the “Russian bear”, so popular in her homeland?
It turned out that, after all, not yet. Scarlett from "Montana" is not Johansson, but a completely different one - an average and, apparently, little-known actress. Her communication with the hero, who does not speak any foreign language, is based on the same technique as in Rogozhkin’s famous film - it turns out something like “Cuckoo” for the poor. It’s hardly inventive, of course, but no other techniques are found in the film at all.
Oleg Taktarov is simple, charismatic and natural - people who know him claim that he is exactly like that in real life. Igor Mirkurbanov tries much less here than in “Ellipses” or in “Inhale-Exhale,” and, without bothering with “working on the image,” he simply makes brutal faces, depicting treachery, cruelty, and greed.
The author and inspirer of everything that happens, Alexander Atanesyan (“24 Hours,” “Bastards”) plays something like a middle manager of the Russian mafia in Los Angeles. He claims that he didn’t want to play, but for some reason the performer assigned to this role refused (why, I wonder?), and he had to take on the matter himself.
Due to the complete lack of ideas about how Russian mafiosi on the West Coast look and behave, I cannot comment on Mr. Atanesyan’s acting. As for his directing, this time it turned out to be a hybrid of Russian cooperative cinema with third-rate American action films, flavored share of trash patriotism. “Russia is Russia!” - Taktarov’s hero says to the workers of the Chinese eatery, trying to explain the greatness of his homeland.
And all of this, in the amount of five hundred copies, filled, if not all, then most of the country’s cinemas this weekend. It is clear that the producers were counting on Oleg Taktarov and Californian landscapes (both of which are rarely seen in Russian cinema), but both Taktarov and California are still American values and speak little to the heart of the average Russian viewer. But in order to launch the “Russian Rambo” project, it would still be worth showing a little more ingenuity.
Oleg Taktarov came to the States in the nineties with a dream of an acting career, became an absolute champion in fighting without rules and an all-American celebrity, began to receive offers of film roles, including in notable projects with partners such as de Niro, but these were traditionally the roles of bad Russians. Taktarov, as he says in an interview, dreamed of playing a good Russian and that is why he happily agreed to Atanesyan’s offer. I believe that the question of what is preferable - the roles of bad guys in a decent movie or good guys in a movie like "Montana" - should face the actor in its entirety after the current release.