Please don't spend money on this.

Just so...so bad

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

This movie enthralled me from the beginning. The acting, across the board, is top- notch. Look for Ian Hart as a very different character than he played in the first Harry Potter movie (Professor Quirrell). I can't say enough about the lead characters. If you like learning about history, even the ugly parts, then see this movie. By the way, it is in English.

Seldom in the history of cinema has a man or woman stepped before the cameras and stunned an audience senseless with a performance so powerful as that given by Ms. Emily Watson. The story is itself overwhelmingly moving and this is the only actor one can imagine taking on such a role and being more than equal to the challenge. Watson conveys the incredible suffering, resilience, and will to survive of the character she portrays with unflinching realism, heart, and soul. This is a characterization that will stay with those who view it forever. It is unfortunate this motion picture has not seen wide release and its fate is questionable because within it lives a towering performance by the finest artist of our time. Emily Watson will fill your eyes to tears, tear your emotions to shreds, and shatter your heart as she once again conquers the cinema screen as no one else can. It is an indescribably beautiful creative masterwork and anyone who sees it can not help be changed in a way that will renew their spirit of humanity for all time. It is difficult to remember any acting experience that has touched the audience so completely and so very deeply. Emily Watson once again achieves what no other actor is capable of, something almost mystical in nature, something beyond words, and impossible to describe for it is so spiritually astounding.

This is rather strange...how can it be possible: just one review!!! A great story about those who made it. Even so, it's still sad, very sad,in fact one of the saddest stories.E. Watson gave a great performance(as usual), both the directing and script were excellent. If there will ever be a Russian version of this film, I would go and see it for sure. The story has some amazing emotion high picks, and I must say, after watching something like that, similar to other great dramas, you feel relieved and lucky to be living in another era with all it's awfulness. You should watch it...it could make you better.

Yevgenia Ginzburg was a literature Professor in the University of Kazan in the 1930's. In those days, Kazan, was a Russian province, under the control of Moscow, with Stalin at the peak of his power. Those days were among the darkest times in Russian history, days marked with persecution, treachery, executions, mass disappearances of anyone considered an enemy of the State or Stalin, whether real or invented. Those were the days when the infamous Russian Gulags were in full force, concentration camps set in the bitter Siberian landscape, marked with hardships, and the long, bitter, below 50+ Celsius winters. Those were the days when both men's and women's mettles were tested to the limit, where people showed either their better sides or their worst. The spirit and strength of survival was the constant companion of such then. This movie is based on Ms. Ginzburg's memoirs, "Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives", where she was banished for 12 years for allegedly participating in the Trotskyist terrorist counter-revolutionary group, a group accused of conspiring against the Russian state by plotting the defeat of the then U.S.S.R. by capitalist countries, and murder their communist leaders. Stalin's purges targeted all these, among others. The labor, suffering, solidarity, survival, of Ginzburg and her fellow inmates are vividly depicted in this biographical epic. You will see incomprehensible hatred among the prisoners of different backgrounds. You will see deep sacrifices people had to make to stay alive. You will see gang violence and rape, as women were forced to sell their bodies for a loaf of bread. You will see prisoners having to make good judgments as to whom to trust and whom not as a key to survival. You will see heroic actions taken by everyday people to protect each other from death from the elements or from being simply shot by the brutal guards. And you will see deep gratitude, simple happiness even if for just a moment, and motherly love. The ensuing love between the camp's doctor and Ginzburg was, I believe, a just reward for the immense trials these two had endured over the years. The ending, which I will not spoil for you, will leave your mind turning for a while, and then, wonder in amazement. Ms. Watson was at her best. All the parts were well done. Veteran actor Ian Hart as the infamous Beylin was excellent. That part when he yells at Ginzburg when she refused to sign her confession - even I was startled; it was well done. There was no attempt to dress up any parts or make them over emotional or sentimental. No, the story unfolds as it would in everyday life, in black and white, with no attempt to overdress anything. If any parts drive you to tears, it is from imagining how and what you would have done had you been there. I lived in Russia for 3 years, working as a University Professor. Much of what I saw in the movie triggered old memories. I found myself saying over and over, "Just as I saw it!" The intrigues surrounding your job and status in Russia is still accurate to this day, although the danger of imprisonment no longer exists. So, dear friends, if you wish to spend the better part of 2 hours watching a story which will keep you spellbound and mesmerized until the end, without a moment of boredom, this is the movie to watch, enjoy, and appreciate. A story of people having lost all will to live, and how with a little help and compassionate love, this will is renewed. This is the story of one woman whose strength and determination inspired others, as it still does today, as I hope will inspire you as well.