This film (released as a DVD under the title LOVER'S PRAYER) by the American director Reverge Anselmo is largely based upon the Turgenev story FIRST LOVE. In order to fill the story out and stretch it to a full-length film,Anselmo chose to use Chekhov's story THE PEASANT WOMEN to create an elaborate sub-plot of peasant side characters. Shakespeare was always adding such subplots to his plays, as we know. I would not say that this use of the Chekhov sub-plot really works. As for the main story,Kirsten Dunst does an amazing job playing the fickle character Zinaida,who is bored with her country life and toys with a retinue of regular suitors in a ruthless fashion. In a sense, this film is a study of how bored and isolated beauties in the past kept a number of men dangling and tormented them for amusement. That used to be a fairly common occurrence. But television and the internet have destroyed it. Men no longer sit around adoring girls who taunt them, as they are too busy watching pornography online. So this film is a useful contribution to social history, showing what happened frequently throughout human history until the present day. Another device which does not necessarily work is a voice-over narration by James Fox as an old man recollecting the events of the story. Anselmo must have been struggling for more unity for the film by trying this. We should not underestimate the difficulty of making this excellent Turgenev tale work on screen. The story and the film do have a lot to offer, not least being the cinematography and the art direction. Geraldine James and Julie Walters put in fine performances, as one would expect. The film is really worth seeing, but I can see that it is not necessarily suited for the impatient or unromantic viewer.

This film under the title of "Lover's prayer" was shown recently on cable. Not having seen the film before, we decided to take a chance on it. Director Reverge Anselmo has adapted two short stories, by Ivan Turgenev and Anton Chekhov and has given it a beautiful production.Most of the comments one finds in this forum seem to have been submitted by fans of Kirsten Dunst and Nick Stahl, which in a way, is unfair to what Mr. Anselmo's was trying to achieve. This is a film that cries for an all British cast. Zinaida and Vladimir are played by two talented American stars, who are clearly out of their league in holding themselves against some of the best English actors of stage and screen. In fact, marketing the film and trying to capitalize on the well known faces, is the wrong approach.That said, the two stories are intertwined and offers us a view of how things were done in the period before the Russian revolution. We are given a situation here shows us a young woman, the daughter of a somewhat eccentric and vulgar princess, who is the center of attraction among the vacationing Muscovites because of her beauty. Zinaida, being loved by young Vladimir, is separated from her young lover because his mother sees the danger in a relationship that is clearly below the young man's situation in life.The film has an ironic twist at the end as the young lovers never get to consummate the passion they feel for one another. We watch in horror what fate Zinaida is facing and nothing has prepared us for that ultimate reality.Julie Walters and Geraldine James are excellent as the mothers of Zinaida and Vladimir, respectively. Nick Stahl and Kirsten Dunst do good work under the Mr. Anselmos's direction. It's clear both these actors are not classically trained to appear in this type of period drama. James Fox, Nathaniel Parker and the rest of the supporting players do a marvelous job.This film should be viewed by mature audiences. The beautiful photography of the Czech Republic countryside and the magnificent interiors add luster to the film.

Yes, this is a period piece -- pre-WWI Russia, to be precise. I only caught the last third of the movie or so, but it was enough to captivate me. The characters were interesting; the music poignant, the scenery stunning. The acting is top-notch with the notable exception of Stahl, who never reflects the agonies and the ecstacies of growing up; he never lets the struggles of the character make their way to his countenance or his actions, and so appears as a painted-face marrionate simply reciting lines and moving about from place to place. The problem is that the retrospective English narrator is used in place of acting; while it's well done and appropriate, it is used to suture up the devestation caused by the poor acting of Stahl instead of complimenting him. But anyhow, enough on that topic. Again, it captivated me, and not many films can do that. Either there's too much trash, or the characters are stupid, unbelievable, or unheroic. This doesn't feel like a cheap Hollywood throwaway flick, and that has something to do with the source material -- Anton Chekov! There is a human warmth about it all and an artistry that is all too often abandoned in pursuit of a quick dollar. Now this isn't to say that this film is the best thing ever put on a reel. But it is enough to make me want to go watch the whole thing, and that is a rare thing.

Visually beautiful with pretty characterisations and some fine acting particularly from Julie Walters. But I had more interest in the love triangle of the serf's that I did of the aristrocracy. It really doesn't come together, but could have been quite a compelling drama if the story had peaked and resolved itself a little more poignantly. I wouldn't spend the two hours of viewing time to sit through this again because it seem's to have been directed by someone with the emotions of granite. Pity because it's so pretty and romantic in a visual sense. Too few scene's from Ms Walters. The character portrayed by Ms Dunst (Zinaida) irritated the hell out of me. Pity I had to wait until the end for her exit !!!!!!!