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RUSSIAN DOLL Send This Review to a Friend
Actress Natalia Novikova is a doll, Russian or otherwise, but Katia, the Jewish character she plays in this Australian romantic comedy, gets a rude welcome when she arrives in Sydney in answer to a matrimonial ad. The man she is to wed isn't at the airport and when she makes her way to where he lives, climbs over a fence in a desperate need to pee and gets into his residence, she finds him dead. What's a poor immigrant girl to do?
For starters she sits on the sidewalk and cries. Along comes Ethan (David Wenham), who is a sucker for her tears--and her looks. He befriends her, and although happily married, he begins a torrid affair with Katia, an effervescent, fun-loving creature. It so happens that Ethan's best friend Harvey (Hugo Weaving), a private eye in divorce cases, has discovered during one investigation that the woman he loves and is so sure is faithful is cheating on him. He's disillusioned and depressed, as well as frustrated in his urge to take time to write a novel.
Ethan has an idea of how to keep Katia in the country. He offers to pay an at-first-reluctant Harvey if he agrees to enter into a marriage of convenience with Katia. Will the relationship stay merely convenient? Can Ethan keep his unfaithfulness secret from his wife Miriam (Rebecca Frith), who is planning a big wedding for Harvey and Katia?
Novikova's sexy, flirtatious performance keeps the film buoyant, and its cynical perspective is also a welcome angle, which comes with an added cynical twist near the end. "Russian Doll," directed by Stavros Kazantzidis, is a light work, but it is often breezily amusing even if predictable. A Lot 47 Films release.
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