I've been having doubts about movie trailers, teasers, what-nots for the last two or three years. We needed a bit of space and now again, it's officially back on and something is missing. I feel fooled, taken for granted as I watch a trailer. One of two things happen: If I got high hopes about the film, the trailer discourages and sucks the anticipation out of me or, if I'm just checking to make sure it's not a movie worth spilling beans to watch it in high tech, super-loud, too hot/too cold theatre couches, and the trailer, again, somehow make me feel sorry for the people who actually thought this would be a positive representation of this video piece some interesting people worked hard for.
So I was done with trailers. But how can you actually avoid trailers? Sometimes you can't, to be honest, I sometimes involuntarily click on one of them. And so, the last one I had clicked on was Leviathan.
The film, on the surface, had the stereotypical Russian elements that gave it the backdrop and the native feeling to me throughout. As if drinking vodka and rifles are part of my daily life. But I was surprised, thankfully to the many insightful reviews which convinced me to see the movie back again (after seeing the trailer), because the film surpasses its initial outlook. Soon you see that the story conveys not bad people but, "humans with flaws", who hold most of their feelings in and gulp a shot of vodka on top. The intended focus is mostly on the internal structures of characters but with limited resource, so we slow down the time occasionally and linger on the faces of each character for a couple of valuable moments.
Perhaps I should thank the trailer for downsizing my expectations while giving me the hint that this movie is a cinematographically well crafted perspective of a humanist mind. The ending, not that it is much arguable, is a bit exaggerated, or should I say "elongated" for me.
I see the world cinema on the verge of artistry, presenting a bitter sweet yet beautifully edited pictures of many varieties. Although, considering the majority, I am grateful for the voices of those who were able to shout it across the globe, the tap of the cinema industry is still a bit stiff.
Leviathan has the most suitable soundtrack with epic notes and melancholic tone. You can almost smell the divine, that similar smell I got from Calvary. The Book of Job was, as I've been told, was the main inspiration for the screenplay. I can very easily believe that to be true. You can see that fine line between a philosophical question and a desperate leap of faith if you think about it.
I have to tell you though, 2 hours and 20 minutes is enough, maybe a bit long, to witness many difficult lives in one sitting. Andrey Zvyagintsev has clearly given it his best and understandably pitched in some opinions. He certainly deserves the praise, but as a viewer from a part of the world outside the most developed capitalist countries, a person who struggles with tiny annoying problems daily, it's all old news for me. That doesn't mean I appreciate any part of it less, but only means that I, and perhaps people with similar thoughts, need and expect a flare, a moment that doesn't resonate with our expectations, a sudden change of perspective on the same old lives we live, see, hear every day.
To leave it on a more neutral tone, just as my feelings towards the film, Leviathan feels like a modern twist on the nostalgic, a Russian appreciation of cinema on a universal base, speaking the language of feelings. It leaves me with a salty and cold breeze on the coast, with a feeling of being stuck in infinite space.
