“Under the Weather”, by Egor Dolgikh. A.K.A ” An almost perfect Russian Dollar Baby drama”
Another Dollar Baby you can watch here at SKSM or directly on youtube. (with permission from Egor Dolgikh)
“Under the Weather” is one of the most heartbreaking short stories Stephen King has ever written. And I already told you guys in some old reviews how I like King’s dramas rather than the horror stories. So when I found out that there was a Russian version of “Under the Weather”, I went nuts. And today I had just watched for the first time this beautiful short movie and I can assure you that it didn’t disappoint me.
One thing used to intrigue me: why such a good story like that had only one Dollar Baby? But today, by reading the director’s interview here in SKSM, I understood why: Egor Dolgikh and his screenwriter wanted to shoot this short story even before they had ever heard of the Dollar Baby program, so when they reached King’s office to ask for a permission they found out about the program. But there was still another problem for them: this particular short story was never on the list of tales King used to authorize. But the Russian guys did not give up, they insisted with the King’s office and finally got the permission to make not only such an important dollar baby but also an unique one. So, spasibo comrades, you guys made my day today.
I am not used to watch Russian movies, I can’t say that I had many chances to watch them since here in Brazil it is easier to find american movies rather than european movies, but this is the second Russian Dollar Baby that I had the chance to watch (the first one being ‘Mathew 19:14“) and this new one really made me think that I should start to pay more attention to Russian movies.
Egor Dolgikh’s movie has some great moments, not only because the filmmakers choose a great story to adapt but mainly because he adapted it in a great way. I have to confess that at some moments I doubted he could do it and I even disliked some scenes, but by watching the movie I figured out that the things that I disliked in it were things that I would do differently as a filmmaker. Yes, I would make a smaller movie and would also use important elements of the story that Alexey Firsov did not adapt in his screenplay, but this is the filmmaker in me talking, so please ignore me. This side of me was speaking loud just because I like this story so much. So, eventually I got back to the audience seat and really enjoyed the short movie.
The screenplay brought us new elements and news scenes that were really great additions to the original story, such as the homeless guy trying to talk to the protagonist’s wife at the beginning of the movie, I really liked that scene, because it shows us the main couple outside of their house. King also did that, but in a flashback when the main character was thinking about an old trip. But the way Alexey Firsov wrote the screenplay, when we see the couple outside their home it doesn’t make it clear if it is a memory or something that is happening right now and that is great for the movie. Why?
Because something that works in a short story won’t necessarily work in a short movie. And the way King wrote this short story doesn’t work fine in a short movie if the screenwriter is too faithful. And forgive me, but I got say that it also happens in this short movie at some scenes: although I liked the movie, all the scenes at the protagonist’s job are kind of slow, I hated the rhythm of them, I would cut it in half because there are too many dialogues trying to explain an idea.
By being too faithful to King’s words at those scenes it almost lost my attention. So this is the only reason I can’t say it is a perfect Dollar Baby, because some scenes have the potential to lose part of the audience. Besides that, I have only good things to say about this short movie, but even with that I can assure you guys that this is a Dollar Baby that every single Stephen King fan should watch.
Another thing that I liked in this short movie is its cast: they are not excepcional, but they are remarkable, the main actor in particular, Alexey Firsov, the same guy that wrote the screenplay. Alexey gives us a restrained performance, but a really remarkable one, especially at the end scene. This was a scene not so faithful to the original, but they did it in a way without losing the essence of the scene, which also is the heart of the story.
The soundtrack was also a good surprise, that piano song really stuck in our heads after it touched us deep in our hearts. Igor Zyuzko, spasibo comrade, your soundtrack almost made me cry.
The outdoor scenes were also fun to watch not only because we can see the main actress outside her house, something that King showed us as a flashback, but also for the same reason I love to watch Dollar Babies from so many different countries: it gives me a glance of places that I might never have the chance to visit in my life.
As I said before, my country drinks a lot from American culture, so most of the movies we get access to are American movies. Because of this I kind of know American streets and American country sides, they are familiar to me. But I had never seen Russian streets, Russian offices, etc etc. And that is not only a curious thing for me as an audience, but also something to congratulate this movie production. Why? Because low budget movies kind of avoid outdoor scenes and I do understand their reasons. And it would be pretty easy to avoid outdoor scenes because most of the story happens indoors in the original short story. But these Russian guys did the opposite, they did not shooted only the obvious outdoor scenes (the main character walking the dog) but they showed us a little bit of Russia, and they got my respect because of that.
You see, some young filmmakers kind of have this “Fear of Sunlight”, like the cast and crew were a bunch of vampires, at their first movies they avoided shooting outdoors like it was a sin. And as I said before, I do get why they do this: once outdoors there are many things that can go wrong. But once they lose this fear of a sun that they can’t control and take the low budget movie outdoors, it shows us that the kid has some balls, you know? “Under the Weather” has just a few outdoor scenes, but it was fun to watch and start to think “oh, this is how a Russian street looks like”. Egor, spasibo for this.
There ain’t too much left to say about “Under the Weather” without giving you guys spoilers, but if there is one thing left to say is this advice: do yourself a favour and watch this Dollar Baby. You won’t regret it, even if it is only to see how Russian streets look.
Believe me, after watching a good drama like this, so well directed, you will also start to think that you should give Russian movies a chance.
The Dollar Baby’s grade? We from SKSM give “Under the Weather” 3 fingers from the dead guy’s hand. We would give five, but the dead guy lost the other two while he was making a peace sign to our Russian friends.
That is it for today, guys. See you next time.
Leonardo Granado.
