Damned almost without exception by all who saw (and suffered) its insane length at the Cannes Film Festival a year ago, the first film by Nikita Mikhalkov since his penetrating criticism of Stalinism, Burnt By The Sun, is grievously underwhelming.
Set in Czarist Russia, this Europudding - about a dotty inventor (Richard Harris) who's out to chop down half of Russia's forests with his multi-saw machine, and his daughter (Julia Ormond) who falls for a soulful Russian cadet (Oleg Menshikov) - is a mishmash of slapstick, sentimentality and operatic melodrama.
Only one scene - Czar Alexander III reviewing the military graduates - comes off with panache. The Czar is played by Mikhalkov: he knows a good thing when he sees it, and keeps it for himself.
The Barber Of Siberia
Cert: cert12
