Moscow on the Hudson
Director: Paul Mazursky
Year Released: 1984
Rating: 1.5
With constantly a shifting mood that goes from comedy to sadness, Mazursky's film is emotionally all over the place. Robin Williams' character's overwrought defection in Bloomingdale's (reporters and cameramen appear instantly) is followed by a series of fish-out-of-water bits (his broken English is always played for easy laughs) and eventually disillusionment (Williams fails as a saxophone player and gets mugged). The mixed world-view is content in saying that existence is the same pretty much anywhere you go, and there are only varying forms of madness – you either get waiting in line for toilet paper in Moscow (or is it chickens?) or deal with the free enterprise of capitalist America (pick your poison). The pieces fit too easily into place – "Sure, I'll let you stay in my house crackpot stranger" – and I remained unmoved by the flag-waving in the final act.
