Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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

FairReview Many Russians and Europeans seem to have a deeply rooted need to create surreal and complex books/movies/art. Misery seems to be the norm in the Russian way of life, and this movie makes sure to keep happiness to a minimum! The movie is based on a script entitled "Brown Moscow", by Yuri Kamenetsky et al. There really needed to be a "Directors Comments" segment on this DVD. The movie is Surreal and Complex: My 8.5 rating is based on this genre.Here is my description of the plot: Sarah laments her missing son Thomas, who ran away years before. She finds a clue of his whereabouts in a catalog of a painting exhibition in Russia, and she goes there. In Russia, a young boy keeps watching her at at distance and she is confused. Eventually we get to the main mystery, where a woman (Katya) is cared for by her husband, who protects her from memories of the death of her past lover (Thomas) for the last 10-years with gentle care, and drugs when she needs them. Katya has occasional episodes where she goes to Thomas' drowning-site and is puzzled.The movie's mystery is finally revealed, when at this drowning-site, the husband once-and-for-all convinces Katya that Thomas was long dead - and she jumps into the water. Sarah and the boy (revealed as Thomas re-incarnated) are late arriving on the scene. Thomas jumps in and saves her. (In the water his shape shifts to adult form for dramatic effect).Katya (her hair flowing) and her rescuer are cast in quite striking imagery, floating slowly down into the deep. The movie ends with Katya evidently going her own way (back to caring husband), and Sarah joins with Thomas the boy. He is painting a picture of Katya and Sarah says "You really miss her ... don't feel bad ... maybe you'll be with her next time".

julioecolon Have you ever seen a movie set in a foreign country and felt the impulse to book a flight there immediately? The Iris Effect had this effect on me. The images in this film, of Saint Petersburg, are spell-binding, to say the least. I felt immediately drawn to the mysterious, shadowy, plaintive tones that Irek Hartowicz's masterful photography captures of SP. Unfortunately, the film is otherwise an embarrassment. The script is uninspired, the acting, especially Anne Archer's performance, a sheer anguish, and the denouement absurd. I feel certain that Lebedev was thinking of Don't Look Now when he made this film, and he manages to create a similar atmosphere in The Iris Effect by thwarting at every turn the mother's attempts to uncover the truth regarding the fate of her son. But you can't make a film about a supposedly accomplished artist who has been missing for ten years and whose disappearance, following a fight with his mother, is linked to his quest for self-discovery and artistic glory, if the art he made is of the quality you might find, at best, at Pier One. The director also fails to develop the obvious iris/ iris metaphor--for some silly reason, I kept waiting for the director to do something with this, even though I knew, a minute into the film, that we were already scraping cinematic rock- bottom and that I could probably swim the length of the Gulf of Finland before anything momentous happened.

kaya_now My mother saw the movie before I did. And she told me to see it and try to solve some doubts she had about the movie. I saw it and really got confused during the movie, but I don't know if it's just me, but I'm really fond of this kind of movie that you get really confused , don't understand, but that in the end everything makes senses.....Plus it leaves in the air something with reincarnation, which in my opinion is a great topic.....moreover there's no exact end scene to the movie, there's no end at all.....it solely ends......just when you're trying to puzzle all the facts in your head. I don't know, this movie made me recall that one BIRTH in which the main actress is Nicole Kidman.... Despite in that one the love of her life was to had being born in the body of a boy. In this one there's also a boy but it's her son, and she's not aware of his death.

Claudio Carvalho In Los Angeles, Dr. Sarah Hathaway (Anne Archer) hired private eyes trying to find her missing son, the painter Thomas, who ran away from their home ten years ago after a quarrel with her. She finds a clue in a catalog of a panting exhibition in San Petersburg and she decides to travel alone to Russia to search for Thomas. Once there, she is not able to locate him and she has a nervous breakdown, but with the support of Dr. Ivan (Gregory Hlady) and helped by a street boy, she discloses what happened with her son.Today I have seen "The Iris Effect", but unfortunately my last movie of 2005 could not be worse. I was attracted by the beautiful places in San Petersburg and a promising summary on the cover of the DVD, but the story has an awful flawed screenplay and development of the characters being almost surrealist so absurd and incredible it is. I really hated this movie and I do not recommend it to anybody. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "A Busca" ("The Search")