Alexey Serebryakov fights with wolves in the taiga. How did the movie "Madness" turn out?
Miscellaneous / / April 02, 2023
A bright Russian thriller is not perfect, but it deserves viewing.
On February 23, the film Rabies was released. It was directed by Dmitry Dyachenko. For the author of the trilogy "The Last Hero" and the new "Cheburashka" this is the first experience in thrillers. The script was written by Alexei Kazakov ("Bitter", "SuperBobrovs", "Chernobyl").
Starring Alexey Serebryakov, Vsevolod Volodin ("Remembering You"), Evgeny Tkachuk ("Like Vitka Garlic drove Lyokha Shtyr to the nursing home”), Georgy Dronov (“Voronins”), Alexander Ustyugov (“Cop Wars”).
So, Igor is trying to cure his son Vovka from drug addiction and takes him not to a rehabilitation center, but to taiga. Perhaps because there is very little time: in the coming days, my father should be arrested. At the same moment, local wolves become infected with rabies and begin to attack people. So the father and son are forced to team up with a local ranger and district police officer to survive in a hunting lodge in the middle of the forest.
Excellent visual range
The film takes place against the background of the taiga - in a sense, a full-fledged hero of the work. Simultaneously majestic and eerie forests create gloomy atmosphere by themselves, the camera work only underlines it. Especially impressive is the drone footage, which tells about the danger that threatens the heroes, more than their conversations.
To remove the taiga ugly is almost an impossible task. Rabies cameraman Yuri Nikogosov successfully captures the world surrounding the main characters. Analogies with "Survivor" Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, but in "Rage" nature looks more picturesque, albeit with more mundane camera work (it is impossible to compete with Emmanuel Lubezki).
good actors
An excellent picture is complemented by the performers of the main roles. Alexey Serebryakov has long been accustomed to the role of a stern man, accustomed to solving problems in the most radical way. So he easily copes with the role of the father of a drug addict.
Vsevolod Volodin vividly depicts breaking, Yevgeny Tkachuk brilliantly plays an unprincipled policeman. Georgy Dronov also looks amazing in the role of Kostya from the Voronins.
The actors mask many (but not all) of the problems built into the film script.
Strange decisions of heroes
Throughout the film, the characters make decisions that put them in an even more difficult position. A spectator who notices obvious errors cannot subsequently empathize characters. Lots of examples.
In one of the episodes, the huntsman says that he has run out of ordinary cartridges, only shot remains. She lies in the car while all the heroes are in the house. Perhaps a shot is not very suitable for the current situation, but it is better than a stick. Heroes understand this only at the moment when they are attacked by a bear. Then they run after the shot - it turns out that it is inconvenient to fight with sticks. Who prevented them from taking it right away?
Throughout the film next to the characters is heroin. Igor takes it from his son, a drug addict, but does not throw it away. I wonder what it can lead to? In fact, this is a spoiler from the writers. What prevented you from getting rid of the bag right away is a mystery.
Big stupidities coexist with small ones, such as freezing in place and tripping at the most inopportune moment. When danger overtakes the heroes, there is a desire to shout: “Well, how did you want?”
Superficial "Fathers and Sons"
The whole film, Igor and Vovka lazily find out relationship. They do not have a single full-fledged dialogue, they are limited to mutual barbs. The father scolds his son for drug addiction, Vovk Igor - for money, with words like "Yes, you're used to buying everyone!". Until the end of the picture, it seems that the father did something bad to his son, but no: the point is only that Igor is provided for.
Igor and Vovka have some incredible hatred for each other, so they cannot talk normally. At the same time, the finale of the picture hints that even such a situation can be exited with dignity - with mutual love. If in "Fathers and Sons" the conflict of generations is simply unresolvable, then in "Rabies" it is simple - it is enough to be in a difficult situation together. Some will say that this is a superficial look at the problem, but Rabies does not try to seem like a philosophical parable.
Ambiguous dialogue
In one of the scenes, Igor and his neighbor Yura drinkwhile Yura's son plays the console (for which he himself has saved up). Igor says that, they say, his son also played "computer", and then got hooked on heroin. The dialogue could be attributed to the fact that Igor is a bit of a dense man who does not like everything modern. But Yura draws conclusions and the next day makes the child break the prefix with an ax.
There is also a dialogue about how addiction occurs. Vovka tells the peasants about American and Canadian experiments, during which it turned out that people become drug addicts because of poor conditions, Wednesday shapes the person, and so on. But nothing explains what kind of environment Vovka himself had. There would be logic if at some point the father and son suddenly remembered that they did not communicate or, for example, Igor beat Vovka. But no - the guy just has a bad environment, without details and clarifications. The performance of the addict lasts several minutes - screen time is spent on the great nothing. It's just unfinished dialogue that says nothing.
Faded action
There are several scenes in the film in which people fight animals. Only the first one was really successful. Wolf attacks suddenly, so you need to kill him with anything you have to. Creepy, dangerous, interesting.
But then the heroes are well aware that the wolves are rabid, but they are not at all preparing for the attack. Because of this, there is simply no drive and tension.
In one of the scenes, a father and son are rushing through the night taiga on a snowmobile, while wolves are running after them. On paper it all looks like a terribly interesting chase, but in reality it is a completely boring ride that is devoid of danger.
Rabies is a movie with a good idea and not the best execution. He had everything to turn out creepy, but the ridiculous decisions of the characters squeeze out unpredictability and fear from the picture. At the same time, Rabies also has its strengths - a beautiful picture and good actors. The film is unlikely to want to be reviewed, but it deserves one viewing, even despite the shortcomings.
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Text worked on: author Dmitry Kamyshenko, editor Alina Mashkovtseva, proofreader Elena Gritsun