Vanya (Wallace Shawn) and sister Sonya (Brooke Smith) maintain an estate for the benefit of elderly professor Serybryakov (George Gaynes) and his much younger and beautiful wife Yelena (Julianne Moore) whom Vanya and frequent houseguest Dr. Astrov (Larry Pine) both covet.
How others will see it. Comfortable actors are comfortable with their roles. No stumbling over lines for this crew. The only casting flaw is Smith, said to be plain, but nearly as attractive as sheet-white hottie Moore.
Moore is the pivot around which the other characters turn. She doesn't work, instead, idly passing her time with others, all eager to spend it with her. Geriatric hypochondriac Serybryakov is such a bore that even the playwright can't stand him, since he is quickly ushered out of scenes.
Most people who stumble upon this film will enjoy it. The characters are interesting, and their problems are affecting. All except Moore feel the effects of time passing. The urgency is greatest in Vanya, who feels trapped in a loveless existence as an accountant bound to the family estate.
Viewers familiar with the actors will also be pleased. The actors play the roles, but behind it all, apart from their characters, they seem glad to be here, glad to be together in what they consider to be a minor masterpiece of a play/movie.
How I felt about it. Everyone is so pleased that it seems such a shame to subject this low budget indie feature to the intense, unblinking evaluation of the ideally objective critic. Of course it's a rehearsal, that's why everyone is so loose, and there's no applause when an act ends.
People in plays talk not like people, but like rehearsed actors delivering the lines of writers with time on their hands and eloquence in their hearts. Some writers are better than others, of course, but the major flaws of a play are present here.
The sets are fixed, so the characters must provide the actions through emotions in their unusually lengthy and cogent speeches. Great emotions are revealed, and daring acts of romance attempted. As is too often the case in real life when such things occur, the target of affection is simply not interested. Both parties are faced with the sudden emptiness of their relationship.
The rug is pulled out from the hopeful, who have nothing to turn to but their former vices. Such is Uncle Vanya, on 42nd Street or anywhere else.