Lover's Prayer

Rating:
Summary: Praying for the End
Review: I learned a valuable lesson this weekend: a good actor is not enough to save a bad movie. Following the success of Bring It On, there are a couple new releases featuring the formerly pint-sized vixin vampire. I suggest you avoid this one. Lover's Prayer is an adaptation of two Russian stories, "First Love," by Ivan Turgenev, and "The Peasant Woman," by Anton Chekhov. I am utterly confused as to why these two stories were thrown together. The story of the peasant woman is abandoned mid-way through the film, and it did not add anything to the plot or purpose of the film. The main story involves the twisted relationship between Vladimir (Nick Stahl) and Zinaida (Dunst). Zinaida moves into the house next door and proceeds to get all of the much older men in town to fall at her feet. She repeatedly bemoans the boyishness of Vladimir, despite the fact that she appears to be the exact same age. In general, Dunst is just too young for this role. All the older men fawning over her is borderline disgusting because they seem like pedophiles. Throughout the film you have no idea as to what motivates Zinaida. When you finally learn the identity of her lover, you are left with a distinct feeling of, "What? What's going on? How did this happen?" There is no explanation as to why she chose the lover she did, the viewer is just supposed to accept spoon-fed plot developments that have no link to the characters and no broad implications to the story. If there is supposed to be an insight into the plight of Russian women, this film fails miserably. The film would have been powerful if the viewer were given an insight into the inner sufferings of Zinaida. There was potential to show the relationship between Zinaida and her mother, the pressures of social status, and the seduction of a young woman. All of this potential is wasted on a disjointed, pointless, jumble of costumed gobbledy-gook. Avoid at all cost!

Rating:
Summary: Praying for the End
Review: I learned a valuable lesson this weekend: a good actor is not enough to save a bad movie. Following the success of Bring It On, there are a couple new releases featuring the formerly pint-sized vixin vampire. I suggest you avoid this one. Lover's Prayer is an adaptation of two Russian stories, "First Love," by Ivan Turgenev, and "The Peasant Woman," by Anton Chekhov. I am utterly confused as to why these two stories were thrown together. The story of the peasant woman is abandoned mid-way through the film, and it did not add anything to the plot or purpose of the film. The main story involves the twisted relationship between Vladimir (Nick Stahl) and Zinaida (Dunst). Zinaida moves into the house next door and proceeds to get all of the much older men in town to fall at her feet. She repeatedly bemoans the boyishness of Vladimir, despite the fact that she appears to be the exact same age. In general, Dunst is just too young for this role. All the older men fawning over her is borderline disgusting because they seem like pedophiles. Throughout the film you have no idea as to what motivates Zinaida. When you finally learn the identity of her lover, you are left with a distinct feeling of, "What? What's going on? How did this happen?" There is no explanation as to why she chose the lover she did, the viewer is just supposed to accept spoon-fed plot developments that have no link to the characters and no broad implications to the story. If there is supposed to be an insight into the plight of Russian women, this film fails miserably. The film would have been powerful if the viewer were given an insight into the inner sufferings of Zinaida. There was potential to show the relationship between Zinaida and her mother, the pressures of social status, and the seduction of a young woman. All of this potential is wasted on a disjointed, pointless, jumble of costumed gobbledy-gook. Avoid at all cost!

Rating:
Summary: Piece of crap
Review: I really didn't understand this movie. It was so disconnected and just........strange! I found myself in a state of total disgust after viewing it and I'm wondering what Kirsten Dunst was thinking when she took on the role. And also- what did Zinaida die of?? And what happened when Nick Stahl was in the tree and saw her through the window? Zinaida was doing something with her dress... And what in the he[ck] happened to the serfs????? They just dissapeared! Maybe I just wasn't watching closely enough, so if anyone could explain these things to me, that'd be great. Anyways, to the person reading this who's actually thinking about buying the movie, let this be a warning. Please, don't waste your money on this piece of .... It's horrible.

Rating:
Summary: A "Pretty" Good Movie
Review: I thought this movie was really pretty dern good! It was more of a "pretty movie" than a "good story movie". I only saw this last 50 minutes of it on TV, but the costumes were incredible, the lighting and scenery superb and exsquisite, but the music was the best. I thought the movie was tragic and romantic, but they could have left out the second story- the one with the adulterous peasant woman. This story was jumbled in together with the main story and it had no ties to the plot whatsoever. Besides that and the disgusting tidbit about the narrator's father ending up with the princess were just about the only bad things int the story.Other than that, I would recommend this movie if you are feeling bored and need to be entertained.

Rating:
Summary: movie fan in denver
Review: Lets be a little more objective than some of the other so called "reviews". If you don't like PBS Masterpiece Theater type stories you won't like this one. The cinematography is excellent (especially with widescreen), the soundtrack is good, the costumes are pretty, Nick Stahl is boyish and handsome, and Kirsten Dunst is ravishing as always. If your're looking for a major block buster movie this it is not. Granted the plot is a bit week and confusing but much more entertaining than the average kill, rape, pillage type of action films so prevelent these days. So mindless viewers in search of action stay away. Anyone interested good film technique and a more thoughtful and slower paced story should be reasonably satisfied.

Rating:
Summary: ...................
Review: The previous reviewers expressed confusion over the plot. If you've never read the books on which the film was based, you'd definitely be confused. I've read both and, still, there were parts that were confusing--like the part the previous reviewer mentioned concerning what Zinaida was doing with the steaming pot when he saw her and his father through the window. Very odd! This was NOT in either of the books!

Despite the confusion, the movie was okay enough. Certainly not the best movie ever made, and they DID abandon the "peasant" plot midway through, which, was indeed bizzare as well. I saw the movie on TV for free. Probably wouldn't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Read the books, otherwise, this movie will be confusing
Review: The previous reviewers expressed confusion over the plot. If you've never read the books on which the film was based, you'd definitely be confused. I've read both and, still, there were parts that were confusing--like the part the previous reviewer mentioned concerning what Zinaida was doing with the steaming pot when he saw her and his father through the window. Very odd! This was NOT in either of the books!

Despite the confusion, the movie was okay enough. Certainly not the best movie ever made, and they DID abandon the "peasant" plot midway through, which, was indeed bizzare as well. I saw the movie on TV for free. Probably wouldn't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Too Superficial Adaptaion of Turgenev's Classic Novella
Review: This film credits as its source two Russian stories -- Ivan Turgenev's "First Love" and Anton Chekhov's "The Peasant Women" -- but the basic plot is based on the first one, a classic novella about a young boy Vladimir, who suffers growing pains during the short summer vacation in Russian countryside. The second story by Chekhov is used as a sub-plot about a man and woman and their illicit love.

Nick Stahl is Vladimir Petrovich, taking summer vacation with his parents in sunny Russian countryhouse, and to their neighborhood comes a girl Zinaida "Princess" Zasyekin and her mother. Vladimir instantly falls in love with this capricious girl, much elder than him, and starts to haunt the house where her mother, apparently down-at-heel, lives. The girl's innocent, comical flirt with other suitors, including Count and Doctor. continues until the day when Zinaida, Vladimir finds out, really falls in love with someone he doesn't know. But who is he? And what should he do?

The book's story about tormented love, which poisons the young heart, is barely visible in the film, but the result is simply deplorable, because of its too superficial treatment of the subject. The identity of the lover looks too abruptly revealed, that is one problem, but more annoying is that we are not convinced of the relations between these people. The book tells us about the tacit understanding and compassion between Vladimir and his father, but as the film fails to deliver that part, some of the viewers would not understand the painful experience of Vladimir at the end of the story.

As to actors, Nick Stahl cannot hold the center of our attention, lacking the emotional power those young boys of 16 yeads old should have, and Kirsten Dunst, despite her best efforts, is miscast as a Russian beauty who changes the life of males surrounding her. And when Julie Walters ("Billy Elliot" "Educating Rita" and Harry Potter series as Ron's mother) looks very irritating as old Princess, being too vulgar and noisy for the part, you can tell there is something wrong with the picture.

I think that the mishmash cast should be blamed -- some American, some British, all cast as Russian -- but more unaccountable decision is inclusion of Chekhov story. Well, the point may be that the sub-plot should introduce a broader scope of viewpoint into this rather simple story of Turgenev. One about aristocratic people, one working class people, both about doomed love. The idea is all right, but as other reviewers rightly say, the second story looks too ineffective and too short (it consists of only about 20 minutes), lacking the sense of closure. The original Chekhov story offers more to tell, but what is more important is that it looks too banal, stripped of the original's atomospheric descriptions.

I tried to like this, and there are some merits, I can say. The photography is beautiful, and costumes and production designs are done decently. But the film shows no finesse for conveying the subtle touch of the book about the lost dreams and youth, and the film's changed ending is too awful. Zinaida would not say that.

Rating:
Summary: ...................
Review: This movie is worthless because it lacks a clear plot. The ending makes no sense at all. Close to the end of the movie the boy discovers that his father was the lover of Zinaida. But what of it? Why was he? It is not explained. It is unclear what the point of the movie is supposed to be. It looks like there is not any point.

Rating:
Summary: confusing movie
Review: This movie was confusing
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It's also hardly believable that grown men would sit around for hours playing kiddie games and squabbling like nursery school children over who got to "kiss her hand." Especially considering how concieted, rude and bossy she was.

The "peasant plot" ended abruptly in the middle of the movie, and was poorly done all along. Denis seemed unconvincing as a man in love, he seemed like a sneak, always spying on this woman. I swear I thought he was going to murder her when he was lurking around in the shadows. When he proclaims his love for her nobody cares, because we hardly know either one of them nor saw them interact previously. We never knew what happened to the woman, her poor husband, and Denis. Does the heartbroken husband leave? Does Denis kill him? Does the woman run away and leave them to duke it out? Who knows.

Sometimes the dialouge seems too modern and out of place for a period piece.

The ending is also horribly disturbing, ...