French filmmaker Olivier Assayas’s filmography is, generally speaking, not particularly accessible. But in recent years, he has entered a phase of making historical dramas that are… not very good. While there are some glimmers of potential in Assayas’s Putin drama The Wizard of the Kremlin, the film lacks the momentum and sharpness to be anything more than a dull historical drama.

What is The Wizard of the Kremlin about?

The Wizard of the Kremlin tells the story of Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in Russia through the eyes of a (fictional) spin doctor and fixer who is instrumental in his success. The political angle here is interesting, and this is a story that many audiences — especially American audiences — probably won’t know. So what went wrong here?

The Wizard of the Kremlin Review

Audiences will be left with one burning question after the credits roll: what were we really supposed to take away from this movie? Corruption bad, sure… but did we really need a nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie about Putin to tell us this? There is almost something there about how governments use the media to shape their narratives (a theme that would have great relevance today, even beyond Russia), but the screenplay gets sucked back into the inner workings of the Kremlin too quickly to really dive into this idea.

One of the most damning things about The Wizard of the Kremlin is that, while watching, you will think about how much more interesting this would have been had it been directed by someone else. I was thinking about how much more effective this could have been as a satire made by Adam McKay or Armando Iannucci, or an espionage thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh.

And this is coming from someone who is typically a fan of Olivier Assayas — he was not the right fit for this material, and he made a lot of very bad decisions in the director’s chair. The chief among these missteps is having most of the actors use their natural accents, rather than using Russian accents (or even speaking Russian). In something like The Death of Stalin, it works because it is deliberately goofy. Here, when it is meant to be straight-faced, it just feels out of place.

The only actor who doesn’t use his own accent is Paul Dano, who puts on a posh British accent to match the rest of the cast. But frankly, it’s just as bad as if he had put on an artificial-sounding Russian accent. It feels like an imitation, not a performance, which is pretty damning considering the fact that his character is not a real person, but instead a fictional protagonist meant to be the audience’s eyes in this strange world.

But while Assayas’s intention with this was purportedly to emphasize emotional authenticity, it actually had the opposite effect of drawing the viewer out of any sense of immersion they may have felt. And it really is a shame that this is the case, because otherwise, the movie is a very well-shot, would-be immersive historical drama with solid cinematography, production design, and makeup.

Much of the film’s buzz will surround Jude Law, who gives the movie’s best performance as Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, mostly because of the accent thing, it always feels like Jude Law playing Putin — he doesn’t become that character. Credit where it’s due, he’s a lot more subtle than he could have been, creating a result that is a lot more menacing than if he had done it as a caricature.

There are a lot of other recognizable faces in the cast, but they don’t make much of an impact. Jeffrey Wright plays a journalist interviewing Dano’s character, and his part is little more than a framing device. Alicia Vikander disappears for a long stretch in the middle of the movie. And Tom Sturridge and Will Keen have a few solid scenes as oligarchs that Dano’s character encounters during his political career, but they are fleeting.

Is The Wizard of the Kremlin worth watching?

On paper, The Wizard of the Kremlin has all the makings of a prestige project: a great international auteur at the helm, a star-studded ensemble, and a story that is eerily relevant. Yet it feels like almost every choice made in Olivier Assayas’ film was the wrong one, resulting in a drama that makes the worst mistake possible: it’s just boring.

The Wizard of the Kremlin hits theaters on May 15.

This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire