Ok, this movie has some great actors (Connery, Pfeiffer and Brandauer) and with that a story combined, make a huge potential to be put onscreen. It never quite gets above average, though many times it was interesting.
What disturbed me was the pacing and redundancy of so many scenes. I don't mind longer and well shot scenes, as long as they fit and hit. In "The Russia House" the entire movie has a plot cut down to only a few moments of talking and walking and love, which isn't bad, but was made bad through the directors artistic feeling for this picture. He tried to make some melancholy and drama by forcing a slow pace and long shots. It doesn't work when nothing happens. As well some scenes (especially in the beginning when Connery is in Lisbon in an interrogation) take very long to be established because the director showed them several times, just with different angles and dialogue which do not further the story or character.
If only some of the more suspenseful scenes (they weren't that suspenseful) were shot to be suspenseful, even just for the cause to be suspenseful, this movie would have been much better and I would have rated it sure above 5 points.
What disturbed me was the pacing and redundancy of so many scenes. I don't mind longer and well shot scenes, as long as they fit and hit. In "The Russia House" the entire movie has a plot cut down to only a few moments of talking and walking and love, which isn't bad, but was made bad through the directors artistic feeling for this picture. He tried to make some melancholy and drama by forcing a slow pace and long shots. It doesn't work when nothing happens. As well some scenes (especially in the beginning when Connery is in Lisbon in an interrogation) take very long to be established because the director showed them several times, just with different angles and dialogue which do not further the story or character.
If only some of the more suspenseful scenes (they weren't that suspenseful) were shot to be suspenseful, even just for the cause to be suspenseful, this movie would have been much better and I would have rated it sure above 5 points.