MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON. Directed by Paul Mazursky; written by Paul Mazursky and Leon Capetanos; produced by Paul Mazursky and Pato Guzman. Starring Robin Williams, Maria Conchita Alonzo and Cleavant Derricks. Rated R (nudity, language).
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Remember those "huddled masses yearning to breathe free?" Those people America welcomes with open arms? (At least we used to.) Moscow lets us know what happens to them, before and after they first get a taste of freedom, NewYork City style. We come to know the courage and pain involved in the decision to immigrate, and the confusion and loneliness that follows.
Wait a minute, you may be thinking. Isn't this a Robin Williams movie? And he's a comedian, right? Yes, on both counts. Moscow is a comedy, although it may not sound like one from the description above. It's a comedy with a serious message, a comedy that makes you think. Like similar movies, it suffers a little occasionally from this split personality as well as from a certain aimlessness about three-quarters of the way through. But overall, it's an entertaining movie with fascinating characters and an interesting, offbeat story. And of course, for Williams fans, it's a must-see.
Vladimir (Williams) is a saxophone player with a Russian circus. He decides to defect to the U.S. while buying designer jeans in Bloomingdale's. But his decision isn't prompted solely by enchantment with the smorgasbord of consumer delights he sees in the department store. Although in previous scenes in Russia, we've seen him standing in awfully long lines just to get shoes and toilet paper.
After his defection, Vladimir begins to adjust to life in the Big Apple. He's helped by Lionel (Derricks) and Lucia (Alonzo), Bloomingdale's employees who befriended him. Lucia is an Italian immigrant almost ready to become a citizen, and Lionel is black. "Everyone I meet is somewhere else," Vladimir comments at one point. Almost the only native Americans he has contact with are Lionel and his family, who feel more or less out of the mainstream of American life because of their race. And they are from Alabama, and so are immigrants, of a type, to New York.
Williams shows a lot of maturity in his portrayal of Vladimir. The script gives him some great oneliners, but there is little of the zaniness usually associated with him. He has some fairly dramatic scenes to play, and he does a good job with them. He makes Vladimir a believable character, stuck in what to most of us is a pretty unbelievable situation. In addition, Williams actually learned Russian, to the point where he sounds just like the Russian emigres who play the Soviets in the movie.
Most of the humor in Moscow comes from Vladimir's unfamiliarity with American customs in sex, shopping, etc. But the fun is never mean or humiliating. The tone of the whole movie is good-natured and affectionate, with Vladimir the main recipient of these good vibes.
The serious side of the movie is generally well-handled, too. The sadness and difficulties of anyone uprooted from family and culture is especially vivid. The discussion of the meaning of "freedom" that the movie provides is interesting, but not as successful. There's just too much repetition once the point is made. Vladimir comes to realize that freedom isn't the absolute here, even though it looks like it at first if all you have known is oppression. We are guaranteed freedom to the "pursuit of happiness," but the happiness itself is not guaranteed. That's a distinction worth pondering, and I suppose the moviemakers can be forgiven if they go a little heavy on it.
NOTE: this movie made my 10-best list for 1984.
April 11, 1984