Kolya

Starring: Zdenek Sverak, Andrey Khalimon, Libuse Safrankova, Ondrej Vetchy, Stella Zazvorkova,
Directed by: Jan Sverak
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Drama
1996

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A lifelong bachelor (Zdenek Sverak) gets paid to marry a foreign woman looking for a visa. His plan backfires when she leaves the country and he's left caring for her young son (Andrey Khalimon).

Review:

Tim: I enjoyed the Czech Republic's Academy Award winning Kolya, but I can't say I loved it. I thought it was a good movie, well made, and entertaining. It surprised me just a bit that it won Best International Feature (at the time, called Foreign Feature). I won't debate too much on the merits, just say that I thought it was good, but never great.

Some of this could be the fact that I watched this for the first time 25 years after it's release. I'm pretty good at putting myself in the right frame of mind, though. For example, in the opening scene, our protagonist commits what today would be viewed as sexual harassment, an act that would receive general condemnation. It's played for laughs here and it spurs him into a relationship with the woman. This makes you cringe at best. I was able to try and put it into the societal context of 1996. It's still not okay, but it was viewed differently back then.

The rest of the story is less problematic and fairly effective. The idea that a lifelong bachelor would embark on a marriage to get paid and allow his wife to stay in the country felt a little forced, but the movie does a good job of setting this part of the plot up. Similarly, it seems unlikely that the man would end up being required to care for her son (who speaks a different language), but the movie puts in effort to explain all this. It requires a bit of suspending our disbelief, but not too much. It's worth doing because the film really picks up steam at this point.

That's really the heart of the movie- the developing relationship between Louka and Kolya and how their relationship ultimately changes them both forever. It's well done, quite understated, but engaging. I had a good time watching the film, even if I was fairly certain where it was all headed. The movie focuses on its characters, giving them room to breathe and develop. By the end of the film, we certainly care about these characters. I wouldn't say I was so thoroughly invested in them that I felt a great emotional hit at the end, but I cared enough to stay interested. I do think the movie needed to build a stronger connection so that we felt more of the highs and lows of these characters.

The cast is good. Zdenek Sverak was excellent as Louka. He is a complex, flawed character, but he really get to know him as the film progresses. He's mostly a good guy and easy for us to root for him. I thought Audrey Khalimon gave a strong performance for someone so young. Libuse Safrankova added a strong supporting performance and Silvia Suvadova worked well in her small role. As a whole, the cast was effective.

I understand that a lot of people really liked this movie and I'd fully support that view, especially if they felt a stronger emotional connection than I did to the characters. This is absolutely a good movie and I'll think of it after seeing it. It won't quite having the staying power it needed- it's not the kind of film I'll vividly remember years later, but I'll remember liking it. Kolya has many strengths and it's worth seeing this film.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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