Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

On the banality of selfishness, self interest, priority to one's offspring vs the spouse's (and the spouse), and ultimately violence. The story is simple but realistic: This situation is banal in reality. As always with Zvyagintsev, filming is beautiful, almost always at dusk. Not as great as Loveless and especially Leviathan.

Atmospheric? Noir? No, it's just excruciatingly slow.Some people LOVE this stuff to sit and watch the clouds pass. For the first minute, I thought I had hit the pause button by accident. Instead I just hit the mute button by accident. (Think about it). If the long empty takes were there to achieve an atmospheric feel, it achieved that in the first 5 min. Any more is just beating a dead horse. In fact, beating a dead horse would be infinitely more fascinating. Instead, we're treated to endless long takes of nothing. By the time the story moves from the setup, we're already an hour into it. And story is nothing to be proud of. It's as old as cinema. It's been seen before. Just not so slowly.

After reading reviews I realized that a lot is lost in translation.This movie is not about rich/poor contrast-nothing new here. This movie is about a role Russian women play in disappearance of Russia, degradation of its male species. It is about enabling dependency and calling it love. When you believe another needs your help and you sure up their weakness with your strength, you helped them not. This movie is about inability to understand that by helping others you dis-empower and make them dependable on you. It is typical and normal for a Russian mother to see herself as a servant to her husband and children. More often than not they continue carrying a sense of obligation to support their "good for nothing" grown up children. They are unable to see and understand that their children are the product of screwed up upbringing where sense of entitlement dominates. This movie is about degradation of Russian males as species,which is a direct consequence of screwed up approach to raising them. Their mothers are at fault, but unable to understand that. I am not sure if viewers, other than Russian, understood the scene after the lights got out. It demonstrated Russian males at its core- garbage of civilization - narcissistic, touchy, cowardly parasites; most vile, the most disgusting and the most useless type of man on earth. Most are sociopaths and drunks. Generation after generation of Russian males are being raised without a good male model. Vladimir sees that. He is however facing consequences of his own mistakes of raising his own child. Elena is not meek and submissive as many see her- while her life seem dull and boring, she is content is serving her husband. Sasha, the grandson, is following his father's steps-drinking, playing videogames and fighting. No sense of purpose or direction. He has no desire to go to college. College is the way to avoid an army. Neither son nor grandson feel appreciation for mother's handouts. All is taken for granted. People were not sure what she was reading about in a book she pulled from a shelf-she was reading about side effects of Viagra. "dilapidated housing block"- as one reviewer mentioned- is not really dilapidated- it is typical and normal by Russian standards. Nothing in this movie without a purpose. But it is hard to understand unless you are born and raised in Russia. Russia is disappearing. Women leave the country to marry foreign men. New rich, while technically Russian, reside mostly abroad. The brightest and mightest males find their way out of the country. What is left-is not a pretty picture.

A curious film to behold, in parts captivating and enticing, it dwindles into somewhat of a pointless parody where one is unsure quite where Andrey Zvyagintsev was going with this one..or if he even knew himself.I shall explain. We are introduced to two curious characters. Elena, the doting housewife/carer and Vladimir - the provider, stern as he is sensible. The film unravels and is successful in its purpose to entertain us, we have questions, curiosities as the audience, we admire Elena and her stoicism, her domesticity, and her obedience.As the film progresses we question the roles we have assigned the characters, and as it continues on our original thoughts start to spiral in an uncontrolled kind of chaos, until we reach the climax of the film, and find ourselves lost in some kind of demented Russian imagination.Enjoy