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The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Monica and David met, fell in love and separated at last in 2 or 3 days.When their bodies were connected, it looks like they will be like that forever. However in the end, you will find a love could last no longer than the length of a sex.If you wanna keep it hot, then keep it short. My favorite scene is their first "conversation". Monica can't speak any English. She brought her classmate to see David. This guy can speak English, Monica needed his help to do translation. "How old is she?" "He wants to know your age." "Tell him Im 18" "She says she is 18. But she's not.""Ask him whether he has girlfriend" "She ask you if you have girlfriend" "Tell her she is cute. She's very very cute" "He said he has more than one"I was chuckling when i watched this. you can't complain that Romanian guy was lying, because he told the truth. he was 'translating' true information between Monica and David. He and Monica came together at last, not David. He loves her. He taught Monica English first by teaching her the song "California dreaming"All the leaves are brown / And the sky is gray / I've been for a walk / On a winter's day / I'd be safe and warm / If I was in L.A / California dreaming / On such a winter's day

Cannes 2007 was great for the Romanian cinema. While Cristian Mungiu's '4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days' was collecting the 'Palme d'Or' another Romanian movie was receiving the alternative 'Un Certain Regard' prize. This was a debut big screen film but unfortunately also an and of career film, as director Cristian Nemescu died in a car accident last year.The story based on real events happens in the Wild East landscape of 1998 Romania, the period of transition, a time when everything can happen even in places where usually nothing happens. The main character named Doiaru is one of the dubious 'entrepeneurs' of the era, he is the chief of a railway station trying to get rich by almost openly stealing from the freight trains that pass through his station. He's the type of guy who doesn't miss an opportunity. When a military transport guarded by a small American unit on its way to the NATO war scene in Yugoslavia enters his fief he decides to stop it under the pretext that the transport misses the necessary paperwork. It is not clear why he is doing it, he does not accept bribes, he certainly is not a lawful citizen, and even politics do not seem to be his motivation. Maybe it's just personal, maybe he just wants to show he is in control. The result is that the American soldiers and their commanding officer captain Jones which had over-passed until then at modern vehicles speed all the horse-driven carriages of the Romanian peasants find themselves suddenly stuck as a situation that resembles some spaceship having landed on an unknown planet.We know from flashback scenes run in parallel with the main action that Doiaru is the son in a family of the enemies of the former Communist rule, the type of guys who had been waiting for decades as most of the Romanian people for the West and especially from the Americans to come to their rescue. In one of the key scenes in the movie Doiaru tells Jones something like: 'We have been waiting for you since War War II. You did not come to rescue us from the Germans, you did not come to rescue us from the Russians, you did not come to rescue us from the communists and Ceausescu. Now you come?' Actually what is left to be saved in 1990 Romania? Maybe to save the Romanian from themselves seems to say the authors of the movie who are extremely critical about the state of the Romanian society represented by the village in the middle of nowhere. A society where corruption and demagogy seems to be the rule, which mimics democracy without understanding or practicing it, where even the dreams of the young seem to be corrupt.The other question is whether the Americans can play the role of saviors. Doubful seems the film to be saying. For the majority of the movie the two groups cannot communicate one with the other and when they do they rather mis-communicate than communicate. If Romania and the West lost contact half a century ago re-connecting does not seem a simple task, as history has brought the two worlds not on parallel by remote and separate Universes. Even when commander Jones decides to do what to him looks like the right thing and takes part his decision is based on mis-communication and lack of understanding of the local culture and policy. The result is a disaster, people kill one another when the Americans leave, and those are not even aware about what happened as they have again mis-interpreted the shooting nosies and fireworks prepared by the local gangsters to hide the noise as something organized in their honor.This is a complex movie that can be interpreted at different levels. At the political level it is a strong critic of the corruption and moral emptiness of the Romanian society and of the cultural insensitivity and lack of compassion of the West for the young nations in Eastern Europe, as well as a pessimistic view on chances of intervention. At a human level there is little compassion for any of the parts, maybe the young people are somehow looked at more sympathetically, their perspective also seems to be limited. The story telling is cursive, characters speak to us and actors really meld into the film. The best was for me Razvan Vasilescu, a genial actor who already made a few roles that describe best the character of the villains of the Romanian transition.Cristian Nemescu could not finish the film, and the title bears a sign - 'nesfarsit' means literally 'not terminated' and 'endless' speaking figuratively. It does not look by any means as an unfinished piece of cinema, and I like to believe that the title rather symbols the permanence of what happens in the movie, the need to recognize that building a sound future cannot be done without acknowledging what happened in the past.

This movie is definitely in my Top-5 of 2007, along with "The life of Others".It's just amazing to see how creative artists from Romania and the Balkans can be. The humor and general spirit of this movie reminds me a lot of Emir Kusturica's talent.Too sad the director died a year ago in a car crash, 28 year old only.Obviously, the best flicks don't come from Hollywood lately. Wanna know why ? It's because foreign movies are not ruled by profit-only oriented producers.It's about "Art" first. Remember ?... Cinema is an art form, not just your regular supermarket product! That's why capitalism is (most often) incompatible with good movies.With this movie, you'll get another proof confirming this theory.

In artistic terms the movie is great. The story is superb, the acting is excellent too. Nevertheless there is an issue that should be taken into account when a director decides to make a movie with an eastern European setting. Films like the ones directed by Emir Kusturica or Nae Caranfil and now by Nemescu reveal and insist on revealing only one side of the Balkans. This facet is often exaggerated for artistic purposes and while it identifies the Balkans in certain aspects, it can also be very hazardous on the longer term. The Romanian, Serbian or Bulgarian societies are certainly more complex than the instances and the characters depicted in "White cat, black cat", "Philantropica" or "California Dreamin'". This picturesque facet constantly addressed by film makers represents a reality of the region but should not be generalized. This is the hazard of making such movies. Westerners and Americans, not very accustomed to the history and the society of the Eastern Europe might reduce them to this narrow view: gypsies, easy and shallow girls, the general poverty and corruption and a scene populated by low-lifes and scums. Everyone seeing this film should enjoy it for what it is, but should also keep in mind that, although true at a certain level, Romania means more than that.