28.2.24
Loveless is not an uplifting film, but it’s powerful, weighty and overwhelming in the best possible sense. By creating a riveting portrait of a family in despair, it offers a scathing commentary on contemporary life in Russia, devoid of heart and soul.
At the story’s core lies every parent’s worst nightmare: the disappearance of your first child. But the lack of urgency from 12-year-old Alyosha’s soon-to-be-divorced parents makes it abundantly clear that neither wants him. Both Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) have moved on emotionally, although still in the same apartment at the start of the film which is quickly being sold to a younger more hopeful couple. Our wicked pair, in contrast, have lined up new lovers and made plans that don’t include the son they heartbreakingly refer to as the worst mistake of their lives.
The two leads are equally disgusting in their selfishness, pride and egocentrism. Their nasty, passive-aggressive digs are electric and darkly funny at times. The performances are uniformly strong, with Spivak’s Zhenya a particular standout as she dominates her scenes with entitlement and ignorance. Yet even the side characters relish opportunities to showcase humanity’s capacity for being profoundly ignorant and detached. In one of the film’s most intense and upsetting scenes, we see the repulsive attitude from Zhenya’s mother, a true battle axe, who rants at her daughter explaining just how she got to be how she is.
Much has been said about the final character shot in the film, showing a woman dressed in an Olympic Russia tracksuit, furiously running on a treadmill alone in the cold, going nowhere fast and isolated – a fitting metaphor for life under Putin. The film therefore emphatically succeeds as both blistering social commentary and thriller, with the likes of Fincher no doubt nodding in approval. For anyone seeking to understand the deep dissatisfaction residing in much of Russian society, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s scathing dissection is never less than extremely compelling. I am only just starting to venture into Russian cinema (having only seen this, Mirror, Battleship Potemkin and Come and See) but I must see more, so I think the director’s other known work Leviathan will be the next Russian film I try and seek out.