Name: Retro Film Review: Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
Item: Vanya on 42nd Street
Rating: 60
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

Some people act because they need to pay bills, drive expensive cars or support cocaine habit. Some people act simply because they like acting. Group led by theatre manager Andre Gregory belongs to the latter category. For years they staged interesting experiment - improvising play based on Uncle Vanya, famous work by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and later adapted by contemporary American playwright David Mamet. When his group, after using many different locations and even actors' apartments, took over old abandoned theatre, the story impressed Gregory's old friend, French film maker Louis Malle. In 1994 he decided to film one of such play and the result was Vanya on 42nd Street, film which happened to be last entry in Louis Malle's rich filmography.

The film begins in quasi-documentary fashion, with actors greeting each other at the street, drinking coffee, bantering and than, inside the theatre, slowly getting into their characters and beginning to read Chekhov's text around table. We quickly get immersed into the play that deals with retired Professor Serybryakov (played by George Gaynes) and his young, beautiful wife Yelena (played by Julianne Moore) coming to their distant estate, managed by Vanya (played by Wallace Shawn), embittered brother of Serybryakov's first wife. Their conflict is complicated with presence of Professor's daughter Sonya (played by Brooke Smith) who suffers from unrequited love for Dr. Astrov (played by Larry Pine).

With actors who had been practicing their roles for years it is hardly surprise that the acting in Vanya on 42nd Street is superb. Even more effective in this film is casting, with some unusual choices - Wallace Shawn, whose face we usually associate with comedic roles truly shines in difficult, dramatic role. George Gaynes, best known as Commandant Lassard from Police Academy series of films, is also very good in his role of pompous and incompetent intellectual. Yet, despite great acting, the general impression of the film is underwhelming - the setting and basic premise of the film leaves very little manoeuvre space for Louis Malle and the audience never forgets that it watches something more suitable for stage than big screen. RATING: 6/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on December 22nd 2003)