Kolya (1996)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Strapped for cash, a Czech cellist enters into a fake marriage with a Russian woman but finds himself in charge of her little son after she emigrates to Germany. This Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is a sweetly gentle movie that mainly focuses on the budding relationship between the 50-something man and the five-year-old boy. While it is predictable and runs out of steam about midway through, it does have an easy charm about it. Zdenek Sverak, the director's father, is quite believable as the life-long bachelor who has his life disrupted by the little visitor. Chalimon, who was only six at the time of filming, is adorable as the youngster.

I'm puzzled why Hollywood never attempted a remake of Kolya. While I was watching it I kept imagining Billy Bob Thornton in the role of Louka, the lead character of the film. In fact, Zdenek Sverák, the actor who plays Louka, actually resembles slightly the Hollywood actor.All kidding aside, Kolya is actually pleasant viewing, the kind of sentimental middle-of-the-road, life-affirming fare that Hollywood seems to embrace when it comes time to pick out the Best Foreign Language Film nominees (See France's The Choir and Joyeux Noel as examples). This is not to denigrate its modest virtues, but really, this is the kind of film your grandmother would love.Kolya is about a 55-year old confirmed bachelor who despite his age, can still score hot chicks half his age that look like they came from the pages of Playboy Czech Republic edition (probably not surprising since Sverák also wrote the screenplay of the movie). Denied a place in the national philharmonic orchestra for not being politically correct enough, he makes ends meet with a variety of odd jobs, including playing for cremations and restoring headstones. Still, Louka is heavily in debt, he needs a car and his mother is nagging him for money to repair the family house.A gravedigger friend of his offers him the chance to make some serious money by entering into an arranged marriage with a Russian woman who wants to stay in Czechoslovakia longer. But the deal goes wrong when the "wife" defects to West Germany, leaving him in charge of little Kolya (played by cute but not too cute Andrei Chalimon), a kid he can't even talk to since he's not conversant in Russian.One of the most notable things about this film is its subtlety. Unlike a Hollywood movie, it does not rely on too-obvious characterizations to show the transformation in Louka. In fact, Louka does not have that far to go in his character arc from commitment-phobic bachelor to potential family man material; he's not a mean man, he simply does not want the responsibility of taking care of a child, in the same way that he has avoided getting married to avoid commitment.This subtlety extends to the ending, which follows its premise to its logical end. I won't tell you what happens, but you can probably figure it out. There are no big surprises at the end. But the filmmakers also allow for a happy ending for Louka, in a brief shot that you may miss if you blink.My irreverence toward Kolya does not mean that I didn't like the film. It's pleasant enough viewing, not great but not bad either. Its probably most notable for the pitfalls it avoids, rather than what it actually achieves. Perhaps it's good that the film was never remade by Hollywood after all.

From another user comment, I gather that this film is packed with humor and references that will only be apparent to those familiar with Czech language and history.Despite that, to me it was an eminently satisfying film.There are three inter-related, connecting narratives, all intensely interesting, that propel the film and our attention.One is that this largely captures the time just before the revolution against Soviet occupation. It delineates very well what it was like to live within an occupied state with foreign rules and prohibitions. Among them, the way some people do (or do not) ally themselves to the foreign presence and support it for their own profit as well as quickly give it up when that's no longer profitable. And a little of what it was like in the transition to greater freedom.Another narrative deals with the life and times of a bachelor professional musician, a cellist, who long ago had to decide between having a family OR being a serious professional musician. He chose the latter route. Since that did not require him to be celibate, he developed excellent seductive skills which were perhaps near the level of his musicianship. His caring for Kolja changes him.The third major narrative to develop is the experience of Kolja, the eponymous subject of the film. He is the child of a single mother, Russian, who is determined to emigrate across the Iron Curtain. As a Russian she cannot. BUT, if she marries a Czech, she can. Due to a realistic but complex series of events, Kolja cannot accompany her.The film deals with trying to accomplish that and its aftermaths and consequences.I thought "Kolja" did a good job of showing SOME of the pain that a child -- separated from biological father, biological mother, biological grandmother, etc. -- would feel and what reactions would occur. But I'm a retired PhD psychologist who worked with scores of children in circumstances somewhat analogous to Kolja's. MY experience is that children placed in Kolja's place would almost always have far more destructive, harder to handle, reactions than Kolja did in the movie. I think it's understandable that Kolja was presented as NOT having those so intensely. This movie would have been rated by me a "10" if only they could have accomplished that but -- to do that, an entirely different movie would have to have been made. But, as it is, it shows the power of a relationship to transform those in it, of his developing love for the child humanizing the musician.

This movie is just so bad! It is all fake - technically good, but fake.... As a Czech I agree with all the Czechs before me who noted that this film was intentionally created to be "effective" in the west. Sverak seized his opportunity and used the historical fact that people in the west may be interested in a story like this at that time. This is a Hollywood style made movie that is apparently created by a Czech for non-Czechs and as can be seen from the previous contributions - it found its viewers - people who call it Czechoslovakian - although it is purely Czech, people who believe it describes life in USSR - we were never part of the USSR, and even people who believe it was political and helped us to fight the Russian oppression - the movie was made in 1996, long after the revolution.....after all it shows the communist reality so unrealistic - so sweet....full of romantic pictures....so that the stupid Americans who need to see the world black and white can understand it....it is a well packed sweet product from a far away easteuropan country which explains in pictures how it all was.....I absolutely hate this film and think that there are hundreds of better Czech movies, especially from the 60's, but I am not sure that the people in the West, especially in the US would ever get them - they are too realistic and it takes time and requires some intellectual curiosity which most of them are missing.....The worst thing is that once, years from now, people will look at it, none of them will have a direct experience with communism and they will cry over this story and think of how bad, but actually "interesting" times they were!....I can literally see the annoying tourists coming to Prague these days and bearing in mind this movie with its cute pictures, music, universal story and a "very interesting period called Communism"....I am going to stop now - this movie make me angry even now!