Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Elena" is a not a pretty picture of modern Russia. One can see a stark contrast between the life of affluent life that the protagonist and her husband lead and the miserable life that her son leads. The gang that beats up a homeless man adds to the dismal factor. It's no accident that Elena does what she does towards the end.Many of the shots last a couple of minutes each, creating a sense of realism. By all accounts, most of the characters see no future. Like Zvyagintsev's previous movie "The Return", it's a focus on a grim, unforgiving world (his more recent "Leviathan" focused on the same sort of topic but also incorporated corruption in the story). The residences alone show the difference: Elena and Vladimir live in a swanky loft, while her son lives in a crumbling apartment building (one of those Khrushchev-era edifices that had design problems from the start).I recommend the movie. Along with the main plot, it poses the question: can Russia ever see a future?

I think that the film deserves above an 8, which on my scale is where all films of excellence are to be found. I think the main reason it is in the 7's is because it's in the Russian style, and some Americans may not care for it. Russian films take their time. A Russian director has no hesitation setting up a shot of a character making coffee and washing the sink for a good stretch of film. Done right, the technique pulls you into close identification with the character and the environment.The acting, writing, and directing are all top notch, and the examination of many levels of Russian life are fascinating. I urge you to take a gamble on this being an "8+" film!

Andrey Zvyagintsev 's 'The Return' is my favourite film to date of the 21st century. 'Elena', a personal drama that illuminates the class structure in contemporary Russia, is not quite so powerful – it's very slow, and the ambiguity of motive that drove the earlier film is not there. And on first viewing it wasn't clear to me whether the shocking but strangely ambivalent ending is a work of genius or the sign of a film that has lost its focus. Still, the director's ability to construct haunting, unexpected images has not deserted him; some scenes reminded me of Keislowski in his Polish phase, just about the highest praise I can give.

Atmospheric? Noir? No, it's just excruciatingly slow.Some people LOVE this stuff to sit and watch the clouds pass. For the first minute, I thought I had hit the pause button by accident. Instead I just hit the mute button by accident. (Think about it). If the long empty takes were there to achieve an atmospheric feel, it achieved that in the first 5 min. Any more is just beating a dead horse. In fact, beating a dead horse would be infinitely more fascinating. Instead, we're treated to endless long takes of nothing. By the time the story moves from the setup, we're already an hour into it. And story is nothing to be proud of. It's as old as cinema. It's been seen before. Just not so slowly.