Loveless (Nelyubov) [Sub: Eng]

Loveless is about a state of mind, a lament, an indictment of crimes against the human spirit.

"Loveless," which is Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage" dipped in battery acid, is a master class in melancholy.

Everything here - from the image to the dialogue to the landscape to the film's vision and judgment - is clean, cold, and bracing.

The whole story can be seen as a metaphor for Putin's Russia and the way the country has lost its humanity. "Loveless" is as bleak and harsh as the tundra.

This is no textbook mystery; it retains a realistic core that kept me committed to what becomes an increasingly cold case. The movie is also worth watching for the uniformly good performances.

The movie's about two people - and, by extension, the culture and country of which they're a part - confronting the fact that they're no longer recognizably human.

Eventually, as in L'Avventura (1960), the quest will come to an end, and a prickly normality will resume. For while Alexey may be the film's absent focus, this is also a slow-motion portrait of two people lost in their lives and longing for change...

Given the current political climate, the story has undeniable resonance on this hemisphere too. Indeed, this is one of the rare foreign-language films wherein an American remake would be wholly justified.

An emotionally stark indictment of middle class malaise and the broken promises of an empire, Loveless is one of the best films you'll see this year.

Beautifully shot and acted, the story and themes get deep under the skin

A masterpiece, a brutal, uncompromising, stunningly well crafted and extraordinarily observant depiction of modern life, relationships, parenting, and society ... At every turn it is revealing and stunningly precise about the human condition.

Thin on character and narrative.