Agony

Headily melodramatic and overlong biopic of Rasputin, from the director of Come and See and Farewell, to which this is immeasurably inferior. The central performance by Petrenko is at best vivid and energetic, at worst mannered and over-the-top, while the whole thing, fitted out with political asides and historical footnotes, comes across as disjointed claptrap, notable only for having broken certain taboos of silence about the infamous charlatan in his native country. Obviously well-intentioned, it's nevertheless often virtually unwatchable.