Nastroyshchik / The Tuner (2004) – 2/5

This movie needed some fine tuning itself

„Nastroyshchik“ or „The Tuner“ is a co-production between Russia and Ukraine from 2004, so this film will have its 20th anniversary soon, next year in fact and how awesome would it be if we’d have peace by the between these two countries, even if things are not looking too good right now. But let’s not get into politics here too much and instead focus on this film that is of course in the Russian language. It is an extremely long film at over 2.5 hours and the director is Kira Muratova, who is now no longer alive and this was one of her later career efforts, even if not close to her final career efforts. For most of her works, she also came up with the screenplay, so nobody can be surprised that this is the case here too. There are three other writers credited and one of them (Koshko) is the one who was in charge of the base material that inspired the production of this film, and the two others Chetvertkov and Golubenko are still alive now as they were much younger than Muratova back then, even if not super young either, but both have worked with Muratova on other occasions. This is no huge surprised because this film here became fairly famous and popular in the years after its shooting. Just look at the really big amount of awards attention it scored. I mean almost all of it happened in Russia if I am not mistaken, but at least on one occasion even my country Germany showed that it was fond of this film and it wasn’t even an awards body situated in the area that is now considered former GDR territory. I personally felt the film looked much older than it actually was. Had somebody told me that this got made in the late 1980s, I would have believed them, maybe I would have believed earlier dates even, but the truth is that this film is from the new millennium. The lack of color truly has an impact here, even if of course you are correct when saying that back in the 1980s color would also have been a stylistic choice already, even in countries like Russia and Ukraine.

I must say that I am not familiar with the names of the cast members here as I am certainly not an expert in terms of films coming from that particular area during this particular time, but I think the actors were all alright. I struggled more with the script, so I would say it is indeed a case of too many cooks spoiling the brother here, even if I of course cannot say if I feel the same about other Muratova films, simply because I have not seen them. This being a contender for her most famous work is not exactly helping things either. I definitely think this could have been fit into 100 minutes, maybe even less story-wise. It did drag quite a bit here and there. Yes, we do have moments that are an exception and make up for it and are solidly interesting to watch, even if I would not say that those had me on the edge of my seat either. Lead actor Georgiy Deliev always elevated the material somehow and good news is that he was in almost all scenes. He already did so when he helps a woman with some work struggles in his very first scene and I would say that it is justified and rightful that he got first credit as he also plays the title character here: the tuner. This proximity of the film to pianos also resulted in a few decent music moments. But those were also neither frequent nor great enough for me to say that this film reached a level where I would consider a positive recommendation. It actually felt a bit strange when we had this young dark-haired woman here play the guitar and sing at the same time. Did not fit too well. The piano music inclusions were better. But it is not a musical of course, also not a music film. I was also never really sure if what I watched here was a comedy or dramatic movie. I mean you can take the entire scam idea as dramatic at its core and also the way how one character is treated by mean here is rather sad than funny, but the comedy element was still maybe more dominant. The female in the row ahead of me laughed a lot here though, especially in the film’s first half/hour. I did not laugh too much, but I would also not say the film was a disaster. Definitely room for improvement too.

I also had a bit of an issue to understand the ending then. So this gang of criminals (I guess you could call them that) succeeded with their plan in stealing a great amount of money from the two elderly ladies here? That did surprise me. We also only see the ladies then at the end and not the other folks. Including the man I just mentioned, Deliev, that I liked the actor and his charisma. I was never really sure what he was up to. I felt like he had taken a liking to the older women and maybe did not want to go through with their crime completely. At least, he definitely did not want to kill them. I guess that this is maybe already a happy ending component then that this did not happen. His girlfriend would not have minded at all apparently with what we find out about her. She definitely has an urge to kill somebody. I mean look at her when she holds that gun in one scene and orders everybody to lay down, including her boyfriend. She is totally crazy. I mean he played one of the key characters in here, the blonde woman, but I am still very surprised that she is the only person depicted on the poster of the film on imdb. That crucial her role is not and the fil would have somehow also worked without her character, but yeah it added a certain kind of danger to it all I assume. I mean even when the elderly women are scammed in the end, what they have to say is still somewhat comedy there without a doubt or also how they get to the bank and understood that everything is different than what they though it would be, not just the fact when the bank was open/closed. But the entire lottery number component was so absurd that you could almost say they deserved it, no matter how nice they were

Anyway, I was actually talking about the man, really the only key male character in here, everybody else from this gender was interchangeable really. One scene when I was not sure if he sided more perhaps with the elderly women than with his girlfriend and the crime, but maybe it was all part of this to make sure they would trust him more as he helped them find out who is the one in charge of this previous crime. I don’t know. Probably would have to rewatch to be entirely sure, but I don’t want to. Not gonna happen anytime soon, maybe never even. It was a film that never really won me over and some sequences I also fund a bit strange, like when the couple was talking about the act of potentially killing a woman and there was this beverage or wine seller right next to them and I was wondering why they (or rather the woman) would make these statements if there were witnesses nearby. Oh and there was another scene when we see one of the elderly ladies not move as if she had a sling around her neck or whatever that was and the two criminals sat next to her and were talking about their deed(s). So yeah, this was just so strange all along, especially as said woman returned fully alive a little later again. She is by the way also the one who had this unusual rendezvous meeting at the very start that was still among the more memorable inclusions from the film. She ended up playing second fiddle then next to the other (richer) elderly lady, but was still in it until the end. Sadly, the actress (Ruslanova) is no longer alive, but most others from the cast are. Nice to see. As for Ruslanova’s character, I did feel a bit sorry for her when another story with a guy is not working out. So when she makes this comment about how she would love to have a family or romantic relationship at least, it felt a bit heartbreaking to watch. At least there, the film succeeded a bit from the emotional perspective if it didn’t on too many other occasions.

I will just go on with some brainstorming now until the end of my review: The scene I mentioned with the couple being at the ladies‘ home was also among the better scenes for sure. When the two women do not know they are together, but this moment of romantic tension there between the guy and girl was also a bit off. What was not really off was the four-legged friend in this film. I am of course talking about the dog. It did not really add anything at all story-wise, but it was still fun to watch and a welcome inclusion from my perspective. The dog noises included by the sound editors were also fun here and not too different than what you usually see in American films from this perspective. On a completely different note, what happened to the guy that Luba was actually out to meet at the beginning of the film. Was he included at some point? I don’t think so. It is a film though that in general does not depict men in a nice enough fashion. Just look at what the guy wants at the very start or also what the male protagonist in this film really is. I mean girls can be evil too and his girl certainly is, but at least there are likable women in here too. This probably also does not apply to Natalya Buzko’s Tanya who is brought in here as a friend of the main antagonist(e), but with the exception of good looks, she adds literally nothing. I guess they needed just another person to pull through with their scheme here. We can call this filler material, but not remotely memorable sadly. Filler material is something that this very long film has a lot. That is all then. The overall movie is not a failure, but I give the outcome a thumbs-down here and suggest you skip the watch. Negative verdict overall.