ReelBob: 'Loveless' ★★★★½

By Bob Bloom

“Loveless” is so sad and depressing that it will be hours before you can shake the bitterness of this Russian import from your mind.

From the outset, director Andrey Zyagintsev, who co-wrote the script with Oleg Negin, sets a bleak and foreboding tone.

The movie opens in a wintry, gray and snowy forest landscape that foreshadows what is to come.

Alexey, a 12-year-old, walks through these woods on his way home from school. Like the rest of Zyagintsev’s palette, the school and the apartment building in which the boy lives are unattractive and dull in tone.

That also is the atmosphere in which Alexey lives. His parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce, their raised voices hurling invectives at each other that, even behind closed doors, assault the boy’s ears like thunder.

Alexey is an unwanted pawn argued over like a piece of old furniture to be discarded by his acrimonious parents. Neither want him.

His mother, Zhenya, is making plans to start a new life with an older man, while Alexey father, Boris, is seeing a younger woman, who is pregnant with his child.

The two spend most of their time obsessed with their own lives that they don’t realize that Alexey has been missing for two days.

Rather than taking steps to find their son, their first priority is to blame each other for his disappearance.

The police are no help, explaining to Zhenya that many children go missing or run away daily, and usually return within a week or so.

A volunteer group that searches for missing children join the hunt for Alexey.

“Loveless” is not so much about finding the boy, but about how easily a person can be discarded or abandoned by parents who — because of their resentments and recriminations — already have moved onto new lives.

Alexey, it seems, is collateral damage, a casualty of a two-person war.

Zvyagintsev’s movie may be seen as a metaphor about a nation that has lost its soul. “Loveless,” like the director’s mother Russia, is cold, harsh and unforgiving — devoid of feeling.

The performances by Maryana Spivak as Zhenya and Aleksey Rozin as Boris are superb. You walk away from the film filled with disgust for these self-centered and selfish people.

At times, you sense as if they would be happier if Alexey was never found.

The movie runs about 127 minutes and drags at times. You wish the pace was quicker, just so you could get through the experience faster.

“Loveless” is a gigantic downer. It is a shattering movie that you want to forget — but discover that you can’t.

I am a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

LOVELESS 4½ stars out of 5 (R), sexual content, nudity, language