I watched Citizen X for the first time in mid nineties soon after it had been actually filmed. After reading numerous positive reviews, at my second viewing a couple of months back I desperately tried to force myself liking it but all in vain.
I really want to offend nobody but I am truly amazed how enthusiastically, in most cases, esteemed English-speaking moviegoers have accepted this feature. Nods to such acclaimed movies of the relevant genre as Silence of the Lambs are particularly amusing.
Undeniably it has a great and admirable cast and crew. Obviously, the film has its strong moments. Nevertheless, despite the actors tried hard the main characters look lifeless, depressed and mostly implausible anyway.
Throughout the entire movie I couldn't get rid of an unpleasant sensation of shallowness of the characters, especially the lead - Victor Burakov (Stephen Rea) looks rather tame, drowsy and lost. Donald Sutherland, a brilliant actor, which is actually one of my favorites, in this movie looks regretfully misplaced and, I guess, is nowhere as near to the original, i.e. Burakov's superior Maj. Mikhail Fetisov. Just a fleeting glimpse at his character made me believe that he was rather American (Ok, Canadian :-))) top-ranking officer, say General (just forget of the difference in uniform and insignia), than typical ordinary Soviet investigator as he really was.
Presentation of the complex, sometimes next to impossible and self-denying work of hundreds of officers aimed at capturing the grim Rostov monster was practically buried behind a caring, somewhat pretentious and grotesque exposure of bureaucratic absurdities and foolishness of the Soviet regime. Or maybe, I guess, it was such an intentional and principal concept of the film makers?
The entire film looks like it takes place on another planet or, at least, in a hypothetical, phantasmagoric, dull and unlively dreamlike place, where all citizens are either robots or dummies, or at least clowns at their best. All along the way I've been expecting Barker's Pinhead with a bunch of fellow-cenobites to pop up from the wall of the mortuary or the railroad station.
Even the senior officials and communist authorities, though are always stereotypically considered to be like that, looked too much artificial to be believable.
Ironically, the teleplay appeared to be based on Robert Cullen's bestseller "The Killer Department", of which apparently it only borrowed a straightforward storyline but failed to capture the entire essence and feel of the pertinent atmosphere.
This remarkable book provides for a thorough and elaborate account of the notorious Russian (Ukrainian, to be more precise) predator's miserable existence. However, in the first hand it focuses on scrupulous work of Chikatilo's captors. Moreover it is also a painstakingly observant and surprisingly accurate portrayal of everyday life in then Soviet Union.
It has a good and balanced sense of the place and the time - exactly what the movie, unluckily, lacks of.
I really want to offend nobody but I am truly amazed how enthusiastically, in most cases, esteemed English-speaking moviegoers have accepted this feature. Nods to such acclaimed movies of the relevant genre as Silence of the Lambs are particularly amusing.
Undeniably it has a great and admirable cast and crew. Obviously, the film has its strong moments. Nevertheless, despite the actors tried hard the main characters look lifeless, depressed and mostly implausible anyway.
Throughout the entire movie I couldn't get rid of an unpleasant sensation of shallowness of the characters, especially the lead - Victor Burakov (Stephen Rea) looks rather tame, drowsy and lost. Donald Sutherland, a brilliant actor, which is actually one of my favorites, in this movie looks regretfully misplaced and, I guess, is nowhere as near to the original, i.e. Burakov's superior Maj. Mikhail Fetisov. Just a fleeting glimpse at his character made me believe that he was rather American (Ok, Canadian :-))) top-ranking officer, say General (just forget of the difference in uniform and insignia), than typical ordinary Soviet investigator as he really was.
Presentation of the complex, sometimes next to impossible and self-denying work of hundreds of officers aimed at capturing the grim Rostov monster was practically buried behind a caring, somewhat pretentious and grotesque exposure of bureaucratic absurdities and foolishness of the Soviet regime. Or maybe, I guess, it was such an intentional and principal concept of the film makers?
The entire film looks like it takes place on another planet or, at least, in a hypothetical, phantasmagoric, dull and unlively dreamlike place, where all citizens are either robots or dummies, or at least clowns at their best. All along the way I've been expecting Barker's Pinhead with a bunch of fellow-cenobites to pop up from the wall of the mortuary or the railroad station.
Even the senior officials and communist authorities, though are always stereotypically considered to be like that, looked too much artificial to be believable.
Ironically, the teleplay appeared to be based on Robert Cullen's bestseller "The Killer Department", of which apparently it only borrowed a straightforward storyline but failed to capture the entire essence and feel of the pertinent atmosphere.
This remarkable book provides for a thorough and elaborate account of the notorious Russian (Ukrainian, to be more precise) predator's miserable existence. However, in the first hand it focuses on scrupulous work of Chikatilo's captors. Moreover it is also a painstakingly observant and surprisingly accurate portrayal of everyday life in then Soviet Union.
It has a good and balanced sense of the place and the time - exactly what the movie, unluckily, lacks of.