Two Women

Presumably for commercial reasons, British star Ralph Fiennes plays (and speaks) Russian in this subtitled, emotionally trenchant drama filmed in Smolensk and based on Turgenev's play A Month in the Country. Set in the 1850s on the estate of a well-to-do Russian family, the plot sees Anna Astrakhantseva's Natalya and her ward, Vera (Anna Levanova), the two women of the title, tossed into a romantic tizz by the arrival of a handsome, young language tutor (Alexander Baluev). The material sometimes puts the turgid into Turgenev, and gives the impression on occasion that this is something better heard on stage than seen on screen. And some unremarkable subtitling does English audiences no favours, either. But the acting, especially of leading lady Astrakhantseva, overcomes the language barrier, and makes this an adaptation worth experiencing by more adventurous viewers.