Seriously disappointing.

tony-70-667920

The synopsis sounded intriguing, and I'm a fan of both leads, so despite misgivings I went to see this film. Big mistake.

The main problem was the inappropriately jaunty, comic tone. Even when they were in the dock and being sentenced to death the gang were fooling about. It's safe to say that Communists aren't renowned for their sense of humour, and are unlikely to be at their perkiest when facing death.

I was so bored I fell asleep, so never found out why they pulled the robbery, or who had fathered Alice's child. The fact that this won 9 Romanian Oscar equivalents, including best picture, doesn't reflect well on that country's cinema. Funnily enough there were no awards for the acting, which was the best thing, apart from the actual propaganda film at the end. (The man on whom the leading character seemed based was as bald as Mark Strong, so why was this fine actor made to wear the least convincing toupee since Wayne, Stewart and Heston were last in films?)

score 2/10

tony-70-667920 12 March 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3430384/