Rating (1 to 10) : 5
Summary: Soviet musician defects while visiting America and his experience in a new country serves to contrast America to the Communist Soviet Union.
This is another one of those pro-American/anti-Soviet movies characteristic of its time (1984), when Reagan reheated the Cold War and there was an ideological rivalry between free capitalism and collective Communism. Robin Williams (of “Mork and Mindy” fame) plays Vladimir, a Russian musician working in the traveling Moscow circus. While the circus is performing in New York, he has a momentary loss of judgement due to the capitalist decadence displayed at Bloomingdales and defects. Williams does an acceptable job of acting as a Russian émigré. He speaks Russian for some lines but it’s obvious that he doesn’t have the body language of a Russian. You also discover how hairy Robin Williams really is (ugh!).
Vladimir’s moment of defection is the first turning point in the movie. The first part of the movie shows Vladimir’s life in the Soviet Union, the great socialist paradise where everybody is watched, people are fearful of expressing their opinions freely, and people wait in line for hours to get things like toilet paper. After his defection, the second part consists of his new life in America, where freedom is taken for granted and material possessions abound. Vladimir is somewhat shocked by this cultural change and this is where most of the movie’s humor is.
It’s the last third of the movie that needs work. The movie drags at the end, trying to tie the first two parts of the movie together somehow. It briefly tries to compare and contrast the two different systems as Vladimir gripes about the failings of unbridled freedom and unfettered capitalism. It doesn’t help that the story also tries to tie up Vladimir’s romantic relationship with Lucia (played by the beautiful Maria Conchita Alonso), a store clerk who helped Vladimir hide in Bloomingdale during his defection.
This is an average movie at best, marked by its cultural anchors to the Cold War 1980s.