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<\/a><\/p>\nGiven the reputation of the novel and the caliber of the people behind it, The Wizard of the Kremlin feels like it should amount to much more. This adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli\u2019s bestseller, directed by the ever-reliable Olivier Assayas, a filmmaker well versed in political thrillers, never quite gets off the ground. Its episodic structure, the long delay in establishing any real central conflict, and a lead performance by Paul Dano that hovers somewhere between understated and inert, leave the film more compelling for what it talks about than for how it works as drama.<\/p>\n
The novel has been widely discussed of late for how its central figure echoes the kind of shadow operators orbiting controversial world leaders. Donald Trump has his \u201cwizard,\u201d Argentina\u2019s Javier Milei seems to have one too, and plenty of leaders flirting with autocracy rely on similar figures. Here, that man is Vadim Baranov, modeled on Vladislav Surkov, longtime advisor to Vladimir Putin and a master of political manipulation\u2014engineering fake enemies, staging conflicts, stoking division, and weaponizing media and the internet to keep power firmly in place. The film also suggests how these tactics\u2014hardly new, but newly refined\u2014would go on to spread globally through the now-familiar machinery of online disinformation.<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s an initial awkwardness in hearing all of this play out in English with Western actors, but that\u2019s not the core issue. The story unfolds through a series of extended flashbacks framed by an interview: an American writer (Jeffrey Wright) tracks down Baranov, now retired but still relatively young, living in isolation in a remote Russian dacha. Hoping to write a book about him, he invites Baranov to retrace his path\u2014one that runs from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the consolidation of power in modern Russia.<\/p>\n
The film moves briskly through major historical beats: the fall of Mikhail Gorbachev, the chaotic presidency of Boris Yeltsin (which provides some of the film\u2019s lighter moments), and the rise of the oligarch class during Russia\u2019s most aggressively capitalist phase. Baranov begins as a playwright embedded in the rebellious cultural scene of the time before drifting into television, where he works on reality shows and other formats built around manipulating \u201creality\u201d for mass consumption. Somewhere along the way, he falls for a singer and fixture of Moscow nightlife (Alicia Vikander), though that relationship barely registers beyond offering a faint emotional throughline.<\/p>\n
The real trouble starts once Baranov enters Putin\u2019s orbit\u2014played by Jude Law with an icy, tightly controlled menace. What should be the film\u2019s most compelling stretch instead turns flat and repetitive. The schemes, betrayals, and political maneuvers\u2014former allies turned enemies, carefully orchestrated crises, the steady consolidation of power\u2014are all there, but they\u2019re presented with a surprising lack of urgency or dramatic weight. Assayas and co-writer Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re seem to be checking off key moments rather than building momentum, as if the narrative were a list to be completed rather than a story to be shaped.<\/p>\n
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None of this is helped by Dano\u2019s performance. While Baranov is meant to be brilliant and elusive, the character comes across as curiously blank\u2014a man whose intellect never translates into presence. He feels less like a puppet master than a mid-level bureaucrat who happens to be in the room where decisions get made. Whether that\u2019s faithful to the real-life inspiration or not, it drains the film of energy, pulling everything toward the same muted, airless tone.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s ultimately where The Wizard of the Kremlin falters most. A 160-minute film dealing with some of the defining geopolitical developments of the past quarter-century shouldn\u2019t feel this inert. Especially coming from Assayas, who brought such urgency and propulsion to Carlos, and who has infused even his more fictional work\u2014like Boarding Gate\u2014with a sense of kinetic tension. Here, that spark is missing. The film insists on the existence of this so-called \u201cmagic,\u201d even shows its effects, but rarely makes it palpable. That may well reflect how power operates in the real world. On screen, though, it never quite convinces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A reclusive strategist recounts his rise inside Putin\u2019s inner circle, revealing a world of manipulation, media control, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[21167,17172,21169,17174,17175,328],"class_list":{"0":"post-36089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vladimir-putin","8":"tag-alicia-vikander","9":"tag-jude-law","10":"tag-olivier-assayas","11":"tag-paul-dano","12":"tag-the-wizard-of-the-kremlin","13":"tag-vladimir-putin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116443019123291945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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