You can’t forget to love

A story that could make a great movie.

I don’t watch our “new” Russian cinema, but I was attracted by the plot. Well, I love the topic of unequal age relationships – it’s close to me. So, after searching for films on this topic, I found this product. I understood in advance that I wouldn’t even have a claim to genius from this film, but curiosity got the better of me.

Plot: Marina, played by Antonova (I’ve never seen this actress anywhere, but that’s probably good – for me she was a fresh face, and she’s a nice woman) – in general, she’s suitable for this role: beautiful, out of this world ( artist), has a divorce behind her, works as a drawing teacher, receives alimony from her ex-husband and is raising a teenage daughter.

Quite a real character – how many such women are there throughout Russia? – single, but still young, already divorced, but with children, and their whole lives ahead.

Marina is submissive to fate and no longer expects any embellishments from her. A good friend of Marina, her colleague is also lonely, but surprisingly wants a better life for Marina.

The family life of Lipa, a taxi driver, did not work out. Husband Kostya has long lost interest in the “working bee” and almost does not hide his infidelities. The last straw is the news that Kostya’s mistress is expecting a child. Lipa lets her husband go and prepares to start a new life.

Unfortunately, after the divorce, Kostya returns again. Having poked around in rented apartments, he intends to move into Lipa’s apartment with his mistress. Will the kind Lipa be able to resist human meanness and find her lost happiness?

I’ll say right away: I liked the film, even though it’s a trifle (at first glance). A simple story about an unsuccessful marriage. A minimum of negative characters with a maximum of positive emotions. And a pleasant ending in every sense. You can look, smile and… forget. But I didn’t throw this movie into the trash immediately after I watched it to the end. Because in these times a good mood does not lie on the road. It is after such a film that you want to talk and think about lofty things. If, of course, you take a little of some noble drink. You can – ‘a drop of sun in a glass of water’ (Francoise Sagan). Or maybe a sip of good French wine. Or, if you really feel bad (and there is no money for elite wine) – a cup of herbal tea, with which the pretty but unlucky Lipa in the film begins a new life. And new love. I just can’t understand why it’s more convenient on four wheels, and not, say, on six or eight! – especially if they (these wheels) are stacked?

So, at the end of her youth, the blond, phlegmatic Lipa (Olympiad) realizes that her husband is not faithful to her. Natural intelligence does not allow a lady to start family squabbles; on the contrary, she blames herself for all troubles: they say, how much have I done to make him feel good next to me? There are such non-scandalous ladies who are comfortable to be around (I myself, however, have not met such people, but I feel in my gut that they exist). And therefore, when Lipa sees her husband Kostya cooing with a young girl at a table in a cafe, there is no hysteria, no wringing of hands, no breaking of dishes when he comes home in the morning. Just bitterness in my soul. This is drama. Then the comedy begins. The husband brings his pregnant mistress into the house, and the three of them begin to live together, waiting for the birth of the child. And they get along well together – Lipa and her homewrecker are even trying to bring the scoundrel Kostya out into the open, planning to catch him with a new passion at a safe house. In the end, happiness smiles on both women, each in their own way, but Kostya is left with nothing. This is the development of events, in short.

But precisely because the plot is simple and there are few characters in the film, the viewer’s attention is focused on the small details of the acting (which should be devoid of escapade).

And if screen actors achieve the desired result, then watching their work is a pleasure. The heroine of “car love” has a familiar face – actress Evgenia Loza creates a portrait of her Lipa with watercolor strokes, sometimes with a slight half-smile, sometimes with squinting eyes.

But the spool is small and expensive – the whole film rests on sympathy for her. The ensemble of actors playing the remaining roles plays along with her worthily.

The popular Kirill Zhandarov in the role of Kostya’s husband stands out a little from the general chorus – the actor starred in several similar roles of scoundrels, and therefore is not very interesting for his predictability in such a watercolor work.

Considering that Kirill Zhandarov (in his free time from cinema) plays on the stage of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Drama Theater, I would wish him a role similar to those created in the cinema by his senior troupe comrade Oleg Basilashvili (for example, the charming scoundrel Samokhvalov in ‘Office Romance’) .

In our one-series film, there is practically no place for him to turn around – the scope of the role is rather narrow. But everything will be fixable (in the future, I hope).

By the way, on the eve of the premiere, in one of his interviews, Zhandarov outlined his philosophy on the topic of ‘Cherche la femme’: ‘Any relationship periodically reaches a dead end, but rushing from woman to woman is not an option.

If you have made your choice, you must take care that the person feels good around you. You need to talk to each other more, find out what your beloved is thinking about, what worries her. And don’t lose your sense of humor!’ His Kostya lives and acts in the film exactly the opposite. And he brings to life the motto – “look for a woman” as often as he has enough strength and charisma.

Was it possible to squeeze a series out of this whole story (relevant today) – if not for 100, then at least for 10 episodes? Maybe yes. Because some fragments (facts, episodes, images) can be stretched out indefinitely, which is done all the time in serial films.

For example, Viktor Loginov plays his Misha sparingly and understatedly – which is suitable for a taciturn truck driver, but not enough for the chosen one of the picky Lipa. Or her brother Dima, played grotesquely by Alexei Medvedev, who loves and is jealous of his sister, as not every husband is capable of – his every appearance on the screen brings a smile.