‘Moscow’ makes it at last

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 14

‘Moscow’ makes it at last

mnemcr

hans petrovic

Pity poor Robin Williams. His films seem to suffer a tardy fate in Christchurch. “Garp” took two years to make it to the cinema (but was available on video long beforehand), and now the film you wondered if you would

see, “Moscow on the Hudson,” opens at the Westend tomorrow. Williams stars as Vladimir Ivanoff, a circus musician who leads the life of an “ordinary” Soviet citizen. He lives in a onebedroom apartment with his grandfather, mother,

father and sister, stands in line for shoes and toilet paper, and is threatened by the K.G.B. The circus leaves for the United States, and in the last half-hour of the tour, Vladimir defects in that most American institution, Bloomingdale’s de-

partment store. He has to adjust to life in New York and his relationship with his Italian girlfriend, Cuban lawyer and the black family which takes him under under their care.

Paul Mazursky, as producer, director and cowriter, casts his usual sardonic eye on New York and Moscow. The critics loved it. “What makes this movie so pleasurable: you get to know the people in it, and Mazursky shows you how normal it is to be a little crazy,” said Pauline Keal, of “New Yorker” magazine. “Robin Williams, who seems to have absorbed something of the Russian soul, is excellent,” cooed

“Time”. “Touches some thrilling emotional chords. The central metaphor of the film is a comparison, through the comic misadventures of its Everyman, of what it means to be an American and a Russian — citizens of the two * contending superPowers,” said “Newsday”. Judge for yourselves.