a review of 无爱可诉

The quality of Loveless surprised me. Russian films are often low-budget, extremely bleak portraits of poverty and decay. But Loveless has a production quality that feels like a reasonably high-budget Hollywood film. Particularly the cinematography impressed me — lots of beautiful shots with balanced compositions. I also really liked the ironic contrast between the indifferent parents of the runaway child and the altruism of the volunteers who tirelessly searched for the child. Furthermore I loved the constant mobile phone distraction, making the parents even more detached. The ending fitted the plot development. Despite the depressing events, director Andrey Zvyagintsev managed to keep Loveless from being completely gut-wrenchingly nihilistic, by keeping it matter-of-factly and by including the warm-hearted volunteer searchers.