Leviathan ** (out of 5) (R) Russians have long been known for ponderous, depressing novels, arguably reflecting their interminable gray, depressing winters. If you don’t have the time to immerse yourself in such tomes from a Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, here’s a chance to replicate the experience in a movie that’s just under 2½ hours. You still get all the political corruption, cruelty and desperation of a fat novel with a far faster track to the gloomy finish. It offers at least 50 shades of gray in the visuals, but without a whiff of the titillation a certain color-themed film dangles. Don’t wait for any whales. It ain’t about that kind of leviathan.
In a small coastal village, the local honchos are forcing one guy to sell the family home he built, but can no longer afford. It’s in the way of a development that the local bureaucratic pig has planned for his enrichment. If you recall the delightful Australian comedy, The Castle, in which an utterly charming family fought the airport expansion that would have leveled their ramshackle home and dowdy little neighborhood, this is the surly flip side of that coin. Fighting City Hall never warmed the cockles so sweetly in the former, or bummed out the viewers so thoroughly in this one. If our winter cold hasn’t depressed you sufficiently, this dour little drama should justify nestling under the covers until April. (2/20/15)
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