Review of The Girl from Petrovka (1974) by Steve W — 28 Jun 2011

When a great actor performs, his performance may be so convincing that the audience may not recognize him. So it is with Anthony Hopkins and his character Kostya. His face is in front of you, but it's a few minutes before you realize it is Anthony Hopkins. For this performance alone you should watch the film. But, there's more...

Goldie Hawn plays a serious character. Her eastern European accent is done well and her acting is impressive.

The story begins with Joe (Hal Holbrook),a middle-aged journalist, who has won some literary awards and is currently working in Moscow for an American newspaper. His much missed ex-wife has recently died and there are a few things of hers in his apartment so he decides to sell them. He goes through Kostya, a local friend and informal broker, to sell her possessions. At this rummage sale is where our story gets moving.

Oktyabrina (Goldie) is a young Russian woman who is in Moscow without papers. She is mysterious. She holds her friends at a distance while she flits around with her own mostly unknown agenda. Joe is immediately entranced. He finds out that a kindly Russian official (Gregoire Aslan) is seeing her. Kostya is spoken for, but he is Oktyabrina's friend. The characters are comic-like from time to time, but this is not a comedy. Though it ends sadly in a somewhat abrupt way, it is well worth watching.

Note: There is a Swedish dvd in widescreen. You must have a player capable of playing Region 2, PAL, discs of course. When you insert the disc into the player, pick a Scandinavian language to get to the main menu and then you can remove the subtitles.