codyw1 wrote:In all truth, if it wasn't Rebecka in it, I probably would have turned it off early on, and yet... while slow, and PECULIAR, there's something oddly compelling, nay hypnotic, about it. Rebecka herself is stunningly beautiful in it, though I am irritated at the fact that, while everyone is clearly speaking english, the movie has been dubbed in post-production, and I am not at all convinced that that's actually Rebecka speaking. Just doesn't sound like her voice at all. Which was decidedly off-putting, to put it mildly. Still not sure whether it was memorably weird or just plain rubbish, though I'm still thinking about it, which puts it above a lot of movies.
The film's idea is beautiful, and it has some potential, but all in all, the script
is "plain rubbish". The characters are card-board, and the story has more plot-holes than scenes. These films co-produced by a lot of European independent companies, some European TV stations, and with financial aid from the European Union, typically have to have at least one scene set in each of the countries involved, in order for everybody to get some of the revenue out of it, so that explains some of the twists and turns of the story. The dubbing is part of the process too. The cast have to deliver their lines in English, but of course most of them will speak with some heavy accent or other, so the entire thing is dubbed afterwards. The actors' speaking English just makes lip-synchronizing easier, that's all.
The other thing with the bear is that it is practically impossible not to begrudge Sergei Bodrov jun. to having Rebecka in this film, and that is just because of his (I'm sorry) lousy acting. (He was
way better as a director - I saw his film "Sisters", and his early death is of course a tragedy.) The love story doesn't work at all for me because his portrayal of Mischa is so unlikeable. I mean, it took a lot of poetic licence and suspension of disbelief to accept that
Frida would fall for
Tobbe in "Eva & Adam", but
Lola and
Mischa in "Bear's Kiss"... Sorry, no way. One longs for Elin bursting into the film from somewhere and just taking her away to where she belongs.