STARS: ROBIN WILLIAMS, MARIA CONCHITA ALONSO, CLEAVANT DERRICKS, ALEJANDRO REY.

DIRECTED: PAUL MAZURSKY

Story

Made in the 1980s, the film opens in cold war Moscow where Vladimir (Williams) plays the saxophone in a Russian circus. We are introduced to the hardships of life in Russia at the time with queues of a city block or more to purchase even simple items such as shoes or, the ultimate luxury, toilet paper. The circus is scheduled to visit New York and the political commissars are busily indoctrinating the circus staff prior to their departure. This seems to have the opposite effect to that intended on Vladimir who decides he will defect whilst in New York. The circus duly arrives in New York and in a slapstick scene played out in the huge Bloomingdales department store Vladimir does indeed defect. He is befriended and taken in by Lionel (Derricks), one of the store security guards and quickly forms a relationship with Lucia (Alonso) an Italian migrant girl from the Bloomingdales perfumery, which leads to a few mildly raunchy moments. With the help of a seedy latin lawyer Orlando (Rey) the US of A accepts Vladimir and he settles down to his new life in Godsown. There are romantic ups and downs, no pun intended, and changes of job and we are given an insight into the life of a migrant in a large cosmopolitan city. However the old adage, of the furthest fields being the greenest, is soon realized by Vladimir.

Extras

A number of extras are provided which are easily accessed through an intuitive menu. The big extra is a Director Paul Mazursky’s full length commentary. This gives an insight into how the film came to be and a host of interesting snippets concerning casting and production. There is a great range of languages available - English, French, German and Spanish and a similar range of sub-titles. There is also scene selection and trailers for two other movies but not for this one.

Overall

This is a gently paced film which plods on to what I consider a wishy washy conclusion. There is some good acting by Williams but I found it all very predictable and unimportant. There is certainly a good, but not terribly profound message, in the film and my life would not be any the worse had I not seen it. But, if you are a Williams fan you’ll probably enjoy. I’m afraid I find his comedy stuff a bit tedious now and prefer him in stronger dramatic roles like Dead Poets. This puts me at odds with Mazursky who believes this to be one of Williams’ best dramatic performances. To each his own. However, the total package is quite comprehensive and there is the double view opportunity with the Director’s commentary.