Review of Onegin

Introduction

Onegin is a movie adaptation of a poem/novel by Alexander Pushkin, said by many to have been a 19th century Russian Shakespeare. Yep, didn’t really impress me much either but I won’t let that put me off :).

The Onegin of the title is Yevgeni Onegin (Ralph Fiennes), an aristocrat who is bored of life and simply going through the motions of high society in St.Petersburg. When Onegin receives news that a recently departed Uncle has left him a large estate in the country he decides on a change of scenery. Once there he meets Vladimir Lensky (Toby Stephens) who has a thirst for life that is in complete contrast to Onegin’s own melancholic outlook. The two become unlikely companions and through this friendship Onegin is introduced to the one of the local families, the Larinis, whose eldest daughter (Olga) is soon to wed Lensky. Here Onegin meets the younger daughter, Tatyana Larini (Liv Tyler), and becomes besotted with her and so begins this tale of love and tragedy.

I’ll stop there as I don’t want to give too much away. This did NOT sound like my cup of tea at all however I was interested in trying something different from my normal diet of action/horror and I am very glad that I did.

Video

The disc is a 16:9 anamorphic transfer and surprised me somewhat. Not being a blockbuster or a high profile release I was expecting a mediocre picture at best but can happily report that the image is every bit as clear and sharp as DVDs should be. This is pretty annoying from a reviewer’s point of view as it’s hard to actually say allot about DVDs with great pictures, it’s far easier to write about poor transfers as the p***-taking metaphors always seem to flow from my keyboard :).

Being a period drama set in 19th century Russia allot of effort went in to making it look authentic. I’m not going to sit here prattling on about what a great job they did, how the hell would I know what 19th century Russia looked like? What I will say is that it looks as I would imagine it would have and hope that that’s good enough.

The Director (Martha Fiennes, sister of Ralph Fiennes) has a fantastic eye and several scenes are made all the more emotional for her understanding of film making techniques. There are many scenes where extra meaning is given simply because of the way it was filmed, great stuff from a 1st time movie director.

Audio

A bit of a let down here as we only get a Dolby Pro-Logic soundtrack whereas the region 1 disc has a full blown Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Is there a reason why we aren’t treated to the same quality soundtrack as region 1 viewers? I have seen the Dolby Digital 5.1 track left off of region 2 discs that I am starting to wonder if there is some other technical reason why this happens. Although more likely it’s sheer laziness on the part of the movie studios.

The Pro-Logic track does a good job though, with some very stirring sound moments and reasonable use of the rear channel when the scenes permit.

Features

The cover boasts 38 minutes of special features and whilst they aren’t amazingly special they are quite interesting. 23 minutes of interviews and 16 minutes of behind the scenes footage curiously labelled as news reports take up the 38 minutes. Watching these extras throw allot more light on the movie and how it was made, including an amusing use of midgets that made me chuckle. If you are purchasing this disc just one piece of advice – DON’T watch these extras before you watch the film as certain scenes will be spoilt.

Whilst what I found what’s here pretty informative we are once again treated as the DVD backwater when compared to region 1. Amongst various minor omissions the region 1 version includes a commentary track from director. From the extras that are on the disc you can tell that both Ralph and Martha Fiennes were very passionate about the subject matter so to miss out on this commentary track is a real shame.

Conclusion

Bearing in mind my usual DVD diet I thought I was mad wanting to review this disc, now I must be totally insane when I say that this is a great film.

What surprised me was just how involved I was by the movie. The film itself sounds little more than a love story but when you consider that Onegin is pretty much an anti-romantic you start to become intrigued as to where the romance comes from. What undoubtedly makes this movie is the cast.

Liv Tyler (yes, the daughter of Bruce Willis in Armageddon) is fantastic as Tatyana Larini. She looks as stunning as ever but every time you look at her you can see that there’s more going on behind her eyes that you at first think. In the extras the director calls it the ‘X-factor’ and that’s probably as good a description for why she is enthralling in this roll. There is something about her as this character that works perfectly and keeps you more closely involved in the story than if another actress were cast in this role. Toby Stephens (Vladimir Lensky) plays the perfect counterbalance to Onegin’s personality and the scenes where he is forced to defend his honour are excellent.

I have to mention Ralph Fiennes (Yevgeni Onegin). He is simply outstanding and gives one of the best performances I have seen from any actor in a long time. It is amazing how many emotions he portrays throughout the movie, and many times without saying a single word. Just the look on his face or the way he carries himself speaks volumes about the character and the sheer depth and intensity of feeling made the final sequences extremely memorable. It’s one of those performances where you could endlessly speculate more about the character than was actually revealed, great stuff.

All I would say against this film is that it doesn’t move along at a quick pace but that was fine with me as not once did I look to see how much time was left.

So to summarise this is a good quality disc let down mainly due to the fact that the region 1 version is superior in many ways. The movie itself is an extremely moving piece that will strike a chord with many people and will reduce even more to tears. Yes I was in tears at several points in the film so this has to be highly recommended.