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While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

As in Hollywood "classic"films of 1930-40s,anywhere in the world "blockbuster"films have common weakness--if not eclecticism of style,then noises-seemingly needless scenes and characters in dramaturgy."Statskiy sovetnik" isn't the exceptional case.But here such flaws are less than any other Russian "blockbusters" in recent years.They are strategically included into the plot,so that they will look necessary elements of the drama(in fact,I think,not). Litovinova,an eccentric lady,strangely sympathetic to revolutionary movement,hating Ppojarskiy and falling in love with Fandorin,is utterly unnatural and inconsistent.But her character is charming in its way and her behavior partly helps the plot developing. The same can be said about the Japanese servant of Fandorin, Masa(again,utterly nonsense if consider the historical moment just before the 1905 revolution). But he also helps the plot developing, including Fandorin's affair with Litovinova and solving the case.Weakness of style also can be pointed out.Director Philip Yankovsky so often uses dissolve, which make the temporal order of some scenes unclear at their beginning.In spite of such flaws,"Statskiy sovetnik" is so far the best of Russian "blockbusters" made from 2003 to 2007. Its decent, even elegant look is undeniable. Dramatic elaboration of the "terrorisim" theme is excellent(it's one of the best element of this film),main actors' and operator's works are quite adequate. Some scenes are far above Hollywood analogue(especially,the scenes with tragic lovers:Green and Needle, and verbal duel of Fandorin and Pojarskiy).As I believe that excellent genre films are far more precious for cinema as a whole than bad "arthouse"films, I rate this 8 of 10.

Befoure I watched the film I was a little disappointed by the reviews. Because such a great cast I expected everyone to sing psalms of the film.Fortunatly the critics in my opinion were mostly wrong. Although Fandorin is shockingly cold the first time we see him, he becomes believable as the film progresses. Mashkov who played Kozyr' is simply amazing. His whole over the top-act, the slang is just so fun to watch. Khabenski does well, and Fandera, who plays Igla is wonderful, very believable. Emiliya Spivak is somewhat irritating, but is what she should have been according to the book. Though of course it is Nikita Mikhalkov who steals the show. A lot can be said about his intrigues at the Russian Film Guild, but he is without a doubt a great actor fit for specific roles. He is at his best when he plays a "Barin", as in "Bespridannica".The action is quick, brutal and not flashy, even the sound of gunfire seems somewhat muffled. There isn't an awful lot of action since it is a Crime movie, not an action film. For some reason they didn't really pay attention to Masa, because he was far too young, and not round enough (according to the book he was "short and round like a barrel"). Green's character was somewhat downsized in the film too, with little background, like the facts that he was Jewish and his whole routine, so I felt that was missed out, because while Igla's motivation is present Green's is none existent. However unless you have read the book you wouldn't notice such nuances, and even if you have not you would not dwell on them.The cinematography is very good, the way light and shadows are used makes some shots worthy of being posters, or photos.So overall I would say that this movie was excellent despite some very minor imperfections.

The main expectations from this movie for me was the image of Fandorin. I must admit that this Fandorin might be quite acceptable for everyone who read Akunin's books about him. Of course, everyone has it's own Fandorin in their mind, but Menshikov did his job pretty well and might be called as "Fandorin for everyone", so - no complains! No complains for all actors(Mikhalkov - bravo) and Yankovsky! For those who read this book, must be satisfied with the movie, because it's close enough to the book and XIX century Russia is also shown quite real. Dark side of the movie - Masa. It looks like it was some kind of amateur actor. Akunin's Masa is much more colorful and, how to say... interesting! Esfir Litvinova, Fandorin's chick, was (IMHO) too modern.

In total now there are three movies inspired by Akunin's novels and each of them gives us quite a different view on the main hero - Erast Petrovich Fandorin, both in appearance and in his manners. In "Statsky Sovetnik" we were promised a grown-up version of Fandorin, played by Oleg Menshikov - the honored "Kostik" of Russian cinematography...Well, Menshikov as Fandorin was... a unique experience. I'm still not sure whether I liked him or not, but I wasn't half as horrified by his acting as some other people. In the film he looks much better than on the billboard (and whoever made that billboard deserves to be fired, for that thing is very very lame), has the posture many modern actors would die for if they were to play an officer and can be quite amusing at times. Of course, this Fandorin is also a snob, who raises his chin too high and doesn't look at the ground he is walking on, and has a strange habit of staring into space while others are talking to him :))) But seriously, he's not that bad, mainly for a reason his part here is not leading.The leading part here is played by Mikhalkov, who (no matter what one can said about him as a person) actually is a great actor, with no wide range of parts admittedly. He's also one of the best Russian directors ("Urga", "Burnt by the Sun" etc.), and helped Yankovsky to make this movie (I wouldn't go as far as to call him the "de-facto" director, but his touch here is noticeable). And guess what? Mikhalkov is not just good as Pozharsky, he is great! "What a bastard!" - we can say about him with that kind of admiration in our voice, that is not possible to express in a written form. And then we can giggle. Because he IS funny.The supporting actors are good too. Oksana Fandera as Igla is the best of all "Fandorin"'s ladies that graced us with their presence on the screen so far. She's so touching in her vulnerable toughness, one cannot help but admire her. Maria Mironova as Julie is not bad either - strangely innocent and weird, neither too smart nor extremely loyal - she is woman enough to drive men mad with her little quirks. Both of these women were good with their roles. Too bad, the same cannot be said about Emilia Spivak, who plays Fandorin's lover - yet another one "emancipe" female Esfir Litvinova. She's even worse than Varya of "Gambit" I swear. Varya at least could look good without baring her breasts. But there's not a lot of Esfir, so she's not enough to ruin the film.Mashkov as Kozyr is as macho as ever and this actually works as an advantage. But I'm somewhat troubled by his striking resemblance to A. Banderas here. Certainly not his best part, but he's good. Quite good. Khabensky is also good as Green and I enjoyed his acting, but it would've been interesting if he and Gorbunov switched their roles. Gorbunov has just the right shade of cold and unforgivable Green in his eyes, although Akhmed played by him is nothing to complain about either. In his and Mikhalkov's part during the interrogation they seem to be in the same league as actors.Whoever played Emelya and Snegir also did a good job. Tabakov disappointed me slightly as he seems not to have a good grasp on his character, like he is not completely sure what he is supposed to play here. Bondarchuk is also amusing, but hardly believable. Oh, and my personal favourite of supporting cast is the one who plays a double-agent who owns the place, where Erast meets Esfir for the first time. He dies too quickly, but for the time he is on the screen he is so wonderfully and pathetically neurotic, you (once again) cannot help but admire him. That of course is an IMHO.Soundtrack is OK, I guess. The "action" theme I liked a lot, but educated people say Stravinsky made it a long time ago and wasn't even mentioned in the list. Now, for the final song... It is horrible. It is as horrible as everyone says it is. I was forewarned about its badness and thought people were overreacting about it. Well, they weren't. It is atrocious and doesn't have anything to do with the movie. As soon as Fandorin decides to work for the Great Prince and closes the door behind himself - rise from your seats and leave (or push on the "stop" button, if you're watching it at home). It's absolutely terrible.In fact do it right after THE explosion (the second one, not the one at the Ice Palace). Because those few minutes of the film after that scene are almost as bad and vulgar as the song. Not only the ending of the book was changed - after all "I'm an artist, I see things in my own way", but it was so disgracefully changed as if it was done by some amateurs that did not know anything about what they were doing. But not as bad as the song, though. Nothing can surpass the song.So, 8 out of 10, because it is a good movie that doesn't feel like it is too long. I look forward to seeing the TV-version of it, hopefully they'll get rid of the song. A DVD of it isn't a "must have" thing, but I believe would be a nice addition to one's collection. Once a licensed version comes out, I'll add it to mine.