It is perhaps the novelty of the Russian setting that elevated this detective mystery story to the front ranks of the bestseller lists and then the box-office, whatever dissatisfaction the book’s author or his fans may have had with the movie. Although it brings out the sense of ordinary Soviet desperation with some reserve, the film focuses more on widespread issues of ideological corruption. Significantly, however, the filmmakers do not depict the American as an ideological savior and towards the end of the film the impression is left that American capitalist interests are an insidious strain that has tainted the ideals of the Soviet Union. Hurt’s dilemma is that however strong his own ego is, he is a small man, with a personal history of antagonism to the KGB, who is engulfed in a declining ideology. In this context of increasing socio-political contamination it is illusory for the innocent Russians in the film to hope for escape to America as their ultimate salvation. The apparent American deliverer here is far from benevolent and as the mystery unfolds, the film becomes ever more disparaging. In a sense Hurt is the last ideologue in Soviet Russia, a proud man who mistakenly holds on the belief that the truth shall triumph – his protracted lesson in the realities of ideological disintegration is for him a kind of humiliation as he seeks to avoid subservience to a system he can no longer validate but is powerless to prevent.
In its story of a man struggling with events that may prove beyond him, the film captures what it feels is the bleak despair of Soviet life. Of course, the setting in Communist Russia means that themes of freedom and repression saturate the movie, but what is remarkable is the cynicism with which the film’s conception of political reality is treated. The unstoppable American is the paradox in this movie, and Marvin’s moral ambiguity speaks volumes about the true market intentions of American idealism. Such is life in Russia that Pacula can only go on living in the hope that someday she can be smuggled out of the country, a view taken as representative of many Russians who presumably put their hopes in the much-vaunted values of the United States, most of whose representatives in this film are exploiters. If taken as ideological criticism, this film is scathing and contemptuous towards the USA, and in turn towards the Russian authorities for their dealings with their so-called ideological enemy: it is a film which both longs for individual freedom but fears the repercussions beginning to emerge as Communist ideals are withered away by American enterprise. Director Michael Apted thankfully lets this criticism unfold as the plot is revealed and so the film becomes naturally cynical and skeptical rather than unnecessarily heavily handed: ultimately about people and their ideology in a state of moral entrapment. read more