Loveless - User Reviews

"Zhenya" (Maryana Spivak) and husband "Boris" (Aleksey Rozin) are in the final throes off their divorce proceedings and boy, can't that come soon enough. Their relationship has become the epitome of toxicity and is seriously stressing out their son "Alyosha" (Matvey Novikov). Not only must he share their small flat with them, but he must also listen to their increasingly caustic conversations that frequently concern him and his custody. I'm not sure his self-obsessed parents realise that he can hear every word and indeed it's probably forty-eight hours before either of them realise that they haven't seen him for a while. They try his friends - of whom he has few, his school and trawl the neighbourhood. All to no avail so the police are called in and the search becomes more urgent. Has he just fled to get some loving affection and attention from his warring parents or is something more sinister afoot? What is curious to start with here is that this couple could ever have loved each other in the first place. He's about as selfish as it's possible to be and she, well she's a pretty ghastly piece of work - a chip off the old block when we meet her equally odious mother (Natalya Potapova). The film doesn't conclude in any traditional sense but the photography in an abandoned building towards the end (part one) offers us quite an allegorical look at that which was once functional and even good is now rotting away through neglect and indifference. The part two of the end takes us forwards a few years and without providing us with answers, does make some suggestions that seem to fit complementarily with the whole bleakness of this analysis of human nature at it's most introspectively angry and egotistical. The acting from the two principles is taut and plausible and the effective depiction of negative energy is potent throughout - even when they need to work together. Aptly titled, then again maybe not entirely?

Following Leviathan, Zvyagintsev doesn't lower the bar with Loveless. Slow scenes (mostly of Russia's winter scenery), in contrast to fast and harsh dialogues, leads us to a multi-layered plot that starts with an ending marriage and ends with a missing son. In the middle, there are some wonderfully crafted insights of main character's intimate life, both physical and not: everyone is trying to rebuild his life, but the missing son (a son that neither the mom nor the dad wanted) pushes to concentrate in searching him. His absence is a lot more powerful than what his presence has ever been for his parents. Zvyagintsev hardly depicts a scene without noticing the viewers that every character is thinking mostly about himself than of the people around him (like the scene in the metro where everyone is using the smartphone). Even the sex scenes of the parents with the lovers outside the marriage, are occasions for them to talk about themselves, not to listen the partner. The research of the son is scrupulous and requires a lot of effort both from police and from volunteers, and is another excuse for the director to explain the distance (the research is ultimately just a diversion) and the absence of love from the parents, that are researching only inside themselves.