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DVD You and I
 Run time: 100 min Rating: 5.1 Genres: Drama | Romance | Thriller Director: Roland Joffé Writers: Shawn Schepps, Luke Goltz Stars: Mischa Barton, Shantel VanSanten, Anton Yelchin |
| Storyline Two girls, Lana and Jane, from vastly different worlds, bond as they persevere to become a part of the glamorous lifestyle offered by the power’s high society. Although they are constantly challenged by the seductive, intoxicating allure of this society, they’re suddenly forced to confront the cruel reality that lies beneath its glittery facade. As their bond is tested to its breaking point, they will need to re-discover the love that brought them together, otherwise their bond will be shattered forever. Written by Elizabeth Obermeier, Marketing Manager |
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| Plot Keywords: abuse, drugs, concert, fan, jail | |
| Details: Country: USA, Russia Release Date: 3 February 2011 (Russia) |
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| Box Office Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated) |
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4 comments
There's no real story here. The movie relies on being foreign to make it interesting but it's just not. The characters are underwritten and majority of the events underwritten as well. The directing was equally as bad as the writing. I wonder how these actors have careers when they pick their scripts so poorly.
Then there is a happy ending that is incredibly convenient and boring. It's a failed attempt at a cutting edge, rock'n'roll flick that is really just glorifying karaoke.
The reviewer praising this with 10 stars and a deranged, raving positive review probably wrote this hunk of crap lol. Whenever I see a review so over the top for a movie so incredibly bad it's pretty much a given someone that worked on the movie wrote it.
Don't pay to see this and honestly, don't waste your time if you can see it for free.
The acting between the two lead ladies are brilliant, Barton in particular adapts to the Russian accent flawlessly, had I not been aware previously that she was an American I would have thought she was Russian, and I can honestly say that I've never seen a film like this before.
The plot is loose at times, highly unbelievable for one and poorly constructed for two. The script is probably what I am most ashamed of, in places it's dull, not needed and slightly childish.
After waiting since 2008 for this to come out I cannot say it was worth it. A delay of 5 years warrants a better end product i'm afraid.
Not to mention the DVD I was sent refused to play audio until I spent the good part of an hour tampering with the settings.
They are both different, one wants to be a model (Lana), the other – party girl and lives with no worries (Janie). Very dynamic plot, not call you aside for a moment. Director and the actors are very well able to convey the atmosphere prevailing in their world. Both actresses have played the role perfectly. Mischa Barton in the role of a Russian girl looks good. And Shantel VanSanten who everyone probably knows now from THE CW'S One Tree Hill in the role of an American who has lived in Moscow for nearly a year does not look worse who is damn good in the role. I am telling you right now Shantel is going to be a huge star in the future, she is a really really good actress. She steals the movie for me, very good portrayal of this character.
Here, each character is her character, her experience … I liked the combination of the glamorous life and the simple life somewhere in the outback. Very impressive scenes look at the club, and on the other hand shows the backwoods of Russia. The film shows the life of the big city (parties, sex, drugs, money problems, death, people with disabilities, transportation, poverty, wealth, love, hate, good and evil). The love/sex scenes between the girls, Janie and Lana, was shot very subtly and beautifully.
In general, liked the movie, very good directing and camera work!
I hope this gets a good release in America because it deserves it.
The trailer proudly announces that "You and I" was directed by "two-time academy award nominee Roland Joffe." Indeed, as unbelievable as this may sound, Roland Joffe used to be a great director back in the 1980s. Joffe reached the pinnacle of his career with the Killing Fields (1984), a masterful film that combines two stories into one: a war correspondent (Sam Waterston) who covers the U.S. military intervention and the Khmer Rouge uprising in Cambodia before he is forced to leave; and his side kick Cambodian reporter Dith Pran (Haing Ngor) who is struggles to survive the Khmer Rouge's brutal concentration camp in the countryside. Amazingly this British director, who is capable of directing a magisterial film like the Killing Fields, has since then made one bad film after the other. "You and I" is just the latest in a litany of Roland Joffe travesties.
To be sure, the beginning of "You and I" did intrigue me. Two wild young women, Lana (Mischa Barton) and Janie (Shantel VanSanten), embark upon an endless night on the town (which lasts very days) amidst Moscow's high society and underground criminal world. They take a devil may care attitude to their colourful surroundings and, as one may expect, Janie in particular gets mixed up with the wrong kind of people and becomes thoroughly immersed in the dangerous world of illicit substances. Only love – in this case a lesbian relationship – can save Lana and Janie from their own self-destructive urges.
Unfortunately, the downfall of "You and I" is that the love which triumphs over adversity is not believable. Mischa Barton and Shantel VanSanten do share a lesbian sex scene in the middle of this picture which takes place largely beneath the bed covers. But there is nothing in the body language of either girl to suggest that they are physically attracted to each other to say nothing about being in love. Mischa Barton's performance illustrates the challenges of speaking Russian (with a Russian accent) and creating a character simultaneously. Although she is a British actress, Barton speaks Russian very well and her Russian accent is quite convincing. Unfortunately, she has not been able to create a character who could hold our interest. Shantel VanSanten, who kept her American accent, has also failed to do anything fresh with her own character. But the film's biggest problem is that the relationship between the two girls is neither plausible or interesting. If neither girl finds the other attractive, why should we care about whether their love triumphs over adversity? In fact, even if you approach this film as a guilty pleasure where the love story is obviously absurd but you are moved by it anyway (as is so often the case with romance novels), even on that level "You and I" fails. Roland Joffe and the producers must have recognized the serious flaws in their own film, because towards the end "You and I" introduces the TATU girls, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, who are charming and charismatic enough to blow the two previous women, VanSanten and Barton, right out of the water. But there is no logical reason for the TATU girls to be inveigled into the plot, which suggests to me that they were introduced at the end of "You and I" so that the film-makers could salvage something out of the wreckage. Instead of using them to hedge his bets, Roland Joffe perhaps should have made Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova the stars of his own picture.