Little Odessa – Eiskalt wie der Tod (1994)

Little Odessa – Eiskalt wie der Tod: Directed by James Gray. With Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Moira Kelly, Vanessa Redgrave. Early 1990s drama about a family of Soviet Jews living in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach ocean-side neighborhood nicknamed Little Odessa.

“Itu0026#39;s the camera-work which first impresses in this one. The shots are so well taken.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRoth is excellent, bordering on superb, and should win the Hugh Laurie Award for the best job done portraying (and sounding convincingly like) a u0026#39;north a-mericanu0026#39; by a Brit.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAre talents like Schell and Redgrave wasted? Hardly. More: their Russian is very good – something you wouldnu0026#39;t expect from a flick like this. Sometimes the language is almost overly simplistic but the accents are very good.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a taut thriller – a scary one – and there are scenes which may have you gasping because theyu0026#39;re so stark. As in u0026#39;Casino was a Bugs Bunny movieu0026#39;. Something like that. Is this good? Thatu0026#39;s another matter. A lot of this is lent by Rothu0026#39;s performance – heu0026#39;s a cold blooded killer and he plays it with more the poker face than Hopkins in Remains of the Day.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDenouement? Watch for it. When the movieu0026#39;s over you might miss the fact itu0026#39;s over. Is this a highly recommendable flick? Hard to say. Some excellent work here. But will you enjoy it? Benefit by it?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThatu0026#39;s a much more difficult question.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePS. Hey IMDb! Stop correcting our spelling and giving us no chance to correct your incorrect corrections. Suggesting corrections is one thing; forcing them upon us is quite another.”