Review of The Saratov Approach (2013) by Rex A — 08 Nov 2013

I thought this movie would be a neat little indie film that showed the real and heartrending dilemma of two innocent missionaries in a compelling way. What I got was an amateurish collection of overdrawn monologues and an overbearing religious message.

First off, the film is written terribly. The characters are massively underdeveloped and their dialogue consists mainly of dated cliches. I never develop a real opinion of the missionaries and thus can't identify with their conflict.

(Not to mention that the film's attempts at comic relief consist almost solely of lame Utahn jokes.) The visual style is inconsistent and the camera gets unnecessarily shaky at a ton of points. Acting-wise, the Russian kidnappers are both decent, but the missionaries are disappointingly average.

Finally, the "overbearing religious message." This film manages to alienate almost all potential viewers except its LDS target audience. As a Catholic, I felt a bit excluded for the duration of the movie despite a lazily shoved in message of ecumenicism.

Overall, this was a story that should've been treated with a lot more care in almost every department and marketed for a bigger audience. Who knows, the story is compelling enough that it could've gotten passed to a big studio and done correctly.

This version just has "amateur" written all over it.