Frenchman Olivier Assayas\u2019 canvas is either highly personal (\u201cSuspended Time\u201d) or deliriously global (\u201cCarlos\u201d). He can be hard to pin down as a filmmaker, except when the material does the restraining for him, as the intermittently arresting but overplayed piece of political theater \u201cThe Wizard of the Kremlin\u201d proves.<\/p>\n
Operating off the same-named novel by Giuliano da Empoli, about a behind-the-scenes manipulator named Vadim Baranov helping to orchestrate Russian leader Vladimir Putin\u2019s rise to power, Assayas and co-screenwriter-journalist Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re have fashioned a whirlwind shadow biopic of 21st century tsardom that blends the real story (Jude Law is Putin) and an invented one (Paul Dano is Baranov) with all the wisdom-in-hindsight energy of an old-school epic dramatizing How Things Came to Be.<\/p>\n
The problem, though, from its clich\u00e9d interview framing (Jeffrey Wright plays an American journalist visiting the retired Baranov at his estate) to the tediously narrated flashback structure, is that the movie never lives and breathes inside its stitched-together moments, preferring to be a relentless, country-hopping talkfest in which characters opine as if fully aware of the consequential era they\u2019re in, fully ready to explain it.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t apply to a scarily good Law, who makes the most of a curiously underwritten featured-player part. When given center stage, his Putin is commanding, reminding us of the real sinister power in the room. But everyone else in \u201cThe Wizard of the Kremlin\u201d is mouthpiece first, character second. Post-Cold War Russia\u2019s swerve away from clunky democracy is as fascinating a turn of events as geopolitics gets, but it\u2019s been reduced to an extended lecture on power, divvied up into timeline hits (from Yeltsin\u2019s nascent kleptocracy to Putin\u2019s violent fearmongering) and speaking parts made of aphorisms and commentary. (\u201cIf you don\u2019t grab power, power grabs you\u201d or \u201cRussia has always needed a strongman,\u201d etc.)<\/p>\n
The Zelig-like Baranov character \u2014 understood to be a liberalized avatar for inner circle strategist Vladislav Surkov \u2014 is an interesting mix of cynicism and opportunity. He goes from being an idealist directing avant-garde theater to honing his manipulation chops making reality TV and eventually helping a savvy business magnate (Will Keen as Boris Berezovsky) fashion Putin into a palatable, malleable politician for an electorate hungry for stability. But when the ex-spymaster\u2019s cold lust to return Russia to imperial glory becomes vengeful and warlike, Baranov\u2019s principles give way to a ruthless impulse.<\/p>\n
If only the sorely miscast Dano had the weight to sell this guided tour of corruption \u2014 a role that could have been in the vein of one of Scorsese\u2019s charismatic motormouth narrators. Affectedly hushed and conspiratorial in nearly every scene, his accent an afterthought, the normally evocative actor comes off more like a one-note Bond villain in training than someone whose smarts and complexities are meant to intrigue. There\u2019s also little chemistry in his scenes with Alicia Vikander, herself struggling to find dimension in a trophy girlfriend, whose greatest skill in an ever-changing Russia seems to be as an oligarch whisperer.<\/p>\n
As \u201cWizard\u201d barrels along, content to be aimlessly scornful and sloppy, it\u2019s hard not to be reminded of Assayas\u2019 much more successfully finessed \u201cCarlos\u201d and how this effort feels like a truncated miniseries, trimmed of nuance and emotion. It\u2019s sketched out for cynical skimming rather than deeper psychological consideration.<\/p>\n
‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’<\/p>\n
Rated: R, for language, some sexual material, graphic nudity, violence and a grisly image<\/p>\n
Running time: 2 hours, 16 minutes<\/p>\n
Playing: Opens Friday, May 15 in limited release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frenchman Olivier Assayas\u2019 canvas is either highly personal (\u201cSuspended Time\u201d) or deliriously global (\u201cCarlos\u201d). He can be hard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[41915,41914,41918,41916,41919,14792,2700,41917,887,334,426,9967,329,28159,328,41913],"class_list":{"0":"post-73121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vladimir-putin","8":"tag-assayas","9":"tag-baranov","10":"tag-carlos","11":"tag-character","12":"tag-cold-lust","13":"tag-cynicism","14":"tag-kremlin","15":"tag-nascent-kleptocracy","16":"tag-power","17":"tag-putin","18":"tag-review","19":"tag-rise","20":"tag-russia","21":"tag-scene","22":"tag-vladimir-putin","23":"tag-wizard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116581682578391721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73121","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=73121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}