A satirical novel about a Putin spin doctor has been adapted into a film that feels exasperatingly laborious and literal-minded, hampered by persistent dull voiceover. The screenplay is credited to director Olivier Assayas and writer-journalist Emmanuel Carrere, who appears briefly onscreen. The plot follows 1990s Russia through Yeltsin's decline, Putin's elevation by oligarchic interests, the Kursk submarine disaster, Berezovsky's influence and exile, the Chechen wars, Crimea's annexation, and the rise of internet black ops and bot farms. Performances include Jude Law as Putin and supporting roles that vary in interest and effectiveness.
Giuliano da Empoli's smash-hit satirical novel The Wizard of the Kremlin, about a Putin spin doctor called Vadim Baranov and based on shadowy Russian politician Vladislav Surkov, has now been converted into an exasperatingly laborious and literal-minded movie, burdened with endless dull voiceover. It has been written for the screen by its estimable director Olivier Assayas, working with the formidable author and reportage journalist Emmanuel Carrere;
Through the eyes of our strangely cynical media-manipulator hero, we see Putin's presidential election triumph in 2000, the sinking of the Kursk submarine, which tested the president's neo-Stalinist ruthlessness in ignoring public-opinion pressure orchestrated by unreliable courtier and media magnate Boris Berezovsky (who was destined for a lonely death in UK exile), the Chechen wars, the annexation of Crimea, the development of internet black ops and bot farms, and Putin's growing hatred of Ukraine.
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