Perilous (2000) Reviews

• some authentic Soviet moments in this nonsensical formulaic thriller

  christopher_lord2005-09-15

  This peculiar production, set in St Petersburg, seems to have been executed with American money and an American script and director by Lithuanians, both as actors (but not in the lead parts) and as technicians. (A Lithuanian film studio seems to have been involved.) This gives an odd effect. The Lithuanian actors are authentically Soviet, but not in fact authentically Russian, and give a disarmingly provincial feel to what is supposed to be a story about the extremely un-provincial Russian mafia. The stars never break sweat as they float through a story so absurd that they don't seem to think it is worth pretending they are taking it seriously, but I enjoyed this film on balance. (The leads make an attractive if ultimately unconvincing couple.) Non-Russians pretending to be Russian gangsters is always a dodgy proposition, and the Lithuanians don't do much better on that score than other contenders; but the extensive location shooting in St Petersburg does give the atmosphere of that city and of Russia today, and the parts shot in Vilnius are consistent with the post-Soviet look of the main location. Reminded me of a Canadian/Latvian production, Red Hot, which had the same important element of some genuine Soviet (post-Soviet in this case) atmosphere: something most attempts at genre Russian gangster films fail at completely.

• Perilously Close To Something Good

  F1ame2001-08-15

  The plot is about a tiara that is stolen and not given to the people who would like it for selling. Lots of chasing around, speaking to different people to find out who wants it, and why they want to keep it and who is hiding what, where is it and what are you doing? This is not very hard to follow, despite the shananigans that occur. The main characters never really encounter desperate situations, and are always hanging around together. I feel this is a slight disadvantage to the film as much more tension could be created by using their relationship. However the romantic entanglement means they need to spend all non action parts forwarding the relationship, so it would have been tricky. There is nothing essentially wrong with the film, in terms of bad production, it just doesn't have a very big impact. I never felt that the outcome was ever in doubt. I didn't mind spending 90 mins watching this, but being a bloke perhaps that had something to do with the female lead.