The Wizard of the Kremlin

“I suppose to be fair to Paul Dano, he does have something of the look of an apparatchik to him, but otherwise he really fails to deliver anything of the complexities or menace in this depiction of the rise of Vladimir Putin. OK, so Jude Law doesn't exactly convince in that latter role, either, but at least he does resemble his man! "Vadim" (Dano) is an aspiring film-maker of no great skill who ends up working as a television producer just as Boris Yeltsin is beginning to lose his grip. His benefactor, billionaire Boris Berezovsky (Will Keen) convinces him that the next man for the job of President could be the director of the FSB - a latter day iteration of the KGB. Putin is no fool, he knows he has limited appeal to the masses and hates public speaking, but "Vadim" convinces him that can all be managed and next thing he is Prime Minister. Next stop the Kremlin with this former movie man now in a fairly pivotal position as a confidante-cum-gentle enforcer. Perhaps surprisingly, Berezovsky isn't so keen on the creature he has helped to create and when Putin starts to rein in some of the more profligate characters - like Dmitri Sidorov (Tom Sturridge), a flashy gent who just happened to break up the relationship between "Vadim" and "Ksenia" (Alicia Vikander), he flees to the Côte d'Azur - but remains a thorn in the side of this new Czar and his increasing policies of centralisation. As "Vadim" watches how his new master is taking charge of the nation, he too begins to feel a little uncomfortable - and now banned from travelling to Europe what use is he to his boss now? This is an oddly sterile story that could have gone the whole hog and dramatically sensationalised the corruption in post-Soviet politics, but instead it uses Dano as both an actor and as a narrator to deliver a retrospective that is lifeless and even at it's most hedonistic is tame, timid and frankly quite turgid. Given that so much of this is pure speculation, why not pepper it up a bit? Why not draw parallels with plenty of adminstrations in the West that are only in office thanks to spin doctors who know how to manipulate the media to convey a message? There are a few moments when the writing threatens to stray into the realms of the interesting, but then Dano's blandness swiftly snuffs that out leaving us with a glossy but entirely superficial look at not just Putin's rise to power but at the disposability of those who helped him get there. This is a long old watch, and I'm glad I saw it at the cinema. At home, I might have just given up.”