"What Men Talk About": movie reviews, plot, actors and main characters

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In 2010, the third movie with the participation of "Quartet I" was released. Unlike the previous works of the team, this picture was not dedicated to the adventures of the employees of "Like Radio", but focused on male subjects. This was indicated by the eloquent title of the film - "What men talk about." Let's find out what this project is about, who starred in it and how well the audience received it.

A little about the "I Quartet"

The history of this wonderful comedy team began in 1993. At that time, four graduates of GITIS (Leonid Barats, Alexander Demidov, Rostislav Khait and Kamil Larin) decided to write their own comedy and put it on the stage of their native university.

This bold experiment was a success, and the guys continued to work in the same spirit. In the following years they wrote several moreunusual plays, each production of which was not without a full house.

The success of the works of "I Quartet" was obvious. In order to consolidate it, in 2007 the first film based on the play "Election Day" was shot. Its high box office performance showed that the audience is interested in film projects of this kind. Therefore, the following year, Radio Day appeared, and two years later, the comedy What Men Talk About.

Storyline

By its genre, the tape is a story about road adventures (road movie). At the same time, there is relatively little action here. The focus is on conversations.

In the center of the plot of the film "What Men Talk About" is the trip of the inseparable four friends to the concert of the group "B-2" in Odessa. On the way from Moscow, Kamil, Sasha, Lesha and Slava talk about everything in the world: about their unfulfilled childhood dreams, about the women they love, about what is good and what is bad, about modern art, about old age and just about life.

Heroes of the film "What Men Talk About"

As in most of the "I Quartet" projects, the actors play under their real names in this one. With the exception of Leonid Barats, who appears in all films as Alexei. The characters are four types of men.

• Camille is a family man without children, who has both a wife and a mistress.
• Sasha is a bachelor who has had a steady girlfriend for many years, but is still not ready to tie the knot.
• Lesha -faithful husband and caring father of two daughters. Secretly yearning for his ex-girlfriend.
• Rostislav is a ladies' man. Likes to spend time in the company of beautiful women.

In numerous interviews, the actors of the film "What Men Talk About" have repeatedly emphasized that they are different from their heroes. The men shown in the picture, although they bear the names of the performers of these roles, are fictitious images. For comparison, in the previous two films of the quartet ("Election Day" and "Radio Day") the heroes of the four were named exactly the same. At the same time, three of them had completely different characters (Lesha is gay, Sasha is a fool and a licker, Kamil is an alcoholic), and only Slava still remained a womanizer.

Other project characters

In addition to the "Quartet I", Zhanna Friske played herself in this tape. She appeared in an episode at the inn in the village of Beldyazhki. Having spent the night there, the heroes imagine what would happen if such a star as Zhanna came to this wilderness.

In addition to Friske, Andrey Makarevich, Alexei Kortnev, Oleg Menshikov and, of course, the Bi-2 group appeared as a cameo.

Minor characters in the tape were played by such well-known artists:

• Maxim Vitorgan (Romeo from commercial).
• Nonna Grishaeva (imaginary wife of Slava).
• Elena Podkaminskaya (Lesha's quick-witted wife).
• Viktor Dobronravov (the waiter who brought Camille "deflop with crouton").
• Grigory Bagrov (a decent husband who resisted Jeanne's charms).
• Elena Doronina (wife of an honest husband) and others.

In many reviews of the film "What Men Talk About" the audience noted a well-chosen ensemble cast. Many people pay attention to the fact that even episodic characters look bright and memorable, whether it is an aunt-administrator from a hotel (Nina Ruslanova) or a Georgian with barbecue in a roadside stall (Anatoly Morozov).

Literary basis of the picture

The film script was based on the play "Middle Age Men Talk About Women, Movies and Aluminum Forks" ("I Quartet"). It was written by Leonid Barats and Rostislav Khait in 2008, and has since been constantly staged in their own theatre. Even today, it continues to form the basis of the Quartet I repertoire, so all fans of the project can treat themselves to contemplating the story about friends live. If, of course, they manage to buy tickets.

It is worth considering that theatrical and film scripts are different. Sergei Petreykov was involved in the finalization of "Conversations of middle-aged men about women, cinema and aluminum forks". It was he who came up with how to revive the dialogues and add action to the picture. And I must say, he did it!

Critic reaction

The film has become a kind of phenomenon in Russian cinema. According to the portal "Criticism", all reviews and opinions about "What Men Talk About", written by professional critics, are positive.

Perhaps this success is due to the fact that everyonefound himself in one of the four heroes of the tape. In any case, such incorruptible unanimity among professional reviewers has not been seen for a long time.

The opinion of ordinary viewers

Unlike critics, ordinary movie fans were not so unequivocal in their assessment of the film, as evidenced by the reviews left by the audience.

"What Men Talk About" was liked mainly by those who are close in age and social status to the main characters - the "25+" category. Such viewers characterized the tape as "intellectual humor", "all life in one bottle", "impossible to tear yourself away" and similar flattering phrases.

It is noteworthy that among the fans of the project are not only men, but also many women. For which in the reviews the tape is sometimes called "family".

Despite the people's love for the picture, among ordinary viewers there were those who did not like it. Moreover, it was women who made up the bulk of those who criticized the project in their reviews. Although men did not all positively assess the project. The main claims were made to such "features":

• monotonous plot, lack of full-fledged action;
• propaganda of change;
• immaturity of the main characters;
• portraying men from the bad side;
• out of life.

One can argue a lot about the presence or absence of the listed details in the picture. It would be fairer to claim that everyone found in the feed what they wanted to see there.

By the way, both those who praise and those whodenounces, sometimes refer to the project as the male version of Sex and the City.

It's fair to say that most of the negative reviews are based on a too literal understanding of the characters of the main characters. Meanwhile, they are a concentration of shortcomings and reflections of average men. This, by the way, is ridiculed in the picture, and quite subtly. For example, many criticize the admiration of Zhanna Friske for the heroes, not realizing that this is not the singer and actress herself, but the generally accepted ideal of sexuality.

Statistics

In order not to be unfounded, let's look at the statistics on the audience's assessment of the movie. To date, the rating of the picture (according to the ratings on "Kinopoisk") is 7, 741 out of 10. As for 353 reviews on the same resource, of them:

• positive - 262;
• neutral - 38;
• negative - 53.

On the portal "All Reviews" the average rating of viewers is 4, 9 out of 5.

Visitors of the site "Irecomend" left 102 reviews about the painting with an average rating of 4, 2 out of 5.

This situation is typical for most resources where you can discuss and evaluate this film. This confirms the fact that most of the audience liked this project, though not absolutely everyone.

Movie quotes

The picture "Quartet I" was so fond of the audience that it was taken away for quotes, and clippings from it became memes. What is Slavino worth"Because!", often used by famous Russian blogger Evgeny Bazhenov (BadComedian) and others in their reviews.

Among other witty remarks, the following are the most popular:

• "I wonder how I would have known it was high art if you hadn't warned me about it?" or "I'm not very hungry spiritually, but physically I'm just terribly hungry."
• "A toast in our restaurant is called a crouton. It's exactly the same toasted slice of bread. Only a toast can't cost eight dollars, but a crouton can."
• "Tell the truth to everyone except fascists and older classmates."
• "Dreams don't come true at all. At best, you just reach your goal."

Sequels

During its theatrical run, the movie grossed twelve million dollars against the two it had spent. This, and the many accolades for What Men Talk About, led to two sequels:

• "What Else Men Talk About" (2012).
• "What Men Talk About. Sequel" (2018).

Unlike the first picture, the scripts for both sequels were original. Perhaps that is why the audience reviews for "What Men Talk About. Sequel" and "What Other Men Talk About" were lessenthusiastic. Moreover, the second tape collected seventeen million at the box office, and the third - only seven.

Critics explain the current situation by the fact that the play "Middle-aged men talk about women, movies and aluminum forks", before becoming a screenplay, was tested by the "audience". "Quartet I" had the opportunity to observe live and draw conclusions about how the audience reacts to certain jokes. Based on these observations, they managed to put into the script those dialogues and reflections that were able to interest. Compared to this, the scripts for the sequels were "raw", and therefore received less positive reviews.

"What men talk about. Sequel", like "Election Day-2", was a sad confirmation that the continuation of even very successful projects is rarely worthy of the original. However, even in this form, the film turned out (according to some viewers) head and shoulders above many other Russian films. Therefore, despite the modest fees of the third part, fans of the "Quartet I" agree that they would like to see the continuation of the story of the restless four.