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House of Fools(Дом дураков)

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Russia, France · 2002
Rated R · 1h 44m
Director Andrei Konchalovsky
Starring Yuliya Vysotskaya, Evgeny Mironov, Vladas Bagdonas, Marina Politseymako
Genre Drama, Romance, War

In this film based on a true story, a group of mental patients in a hospital near Chechnya must support themselves as the staff flees the First Chechen War. Janna, one of the patients, dreams of marrying pop star Bryan Adams, but ends up falling for one of the soldiers who comes to the hospital.

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90

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

The thing is, it works. Or at least it works for me. I left the theater convinced that House of Fools is Konchalovsky's best work in almost 20 years (which it is) and that it might be something close to a masterpiece.

60

Variety by Deborah Young

Has the comically grotesque appeal of a Fellini film and could reach out to auds in specialized release. It lacks the originality and invention to go much beyond that.

30

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

There doesn't seem to be much purpose to it except a half-baked notion that the histrionics of the mentally insane (or a moviemaker's idea therein) are eminently cinematic. They aren't.

50

Miami Herald by Marta Barber

House of Fools is not in the category of the director's acclaimed "Runaway Train." It may be based on a true story, but another filmmaker told it before -- and better.

75

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

The masterstroke is the use of Bryan Adams, who seems like a joke when he first appears (the movie knows this), but is used by Konchalovsky in such a way that eventually be becomes the embodiment of the ability to imagine and dream--an ability, the movie implies, that's the only thing keeping these crazy people sane.

10

The New Republic by Stanley Kauffmann

His (writer/director Konchalovsky's) plunge into the world of mental distortion is so garish, so exploitative, that the picture needs only a few clicks of the dial to move from the horrible to the ludicrous

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