From revenge to the quarry – Newspaper Kommersant No. 241 (7442) of 12/27/2022

At the box office is the crime melodrama by Anton Megerdichev “Former. Happy End” is a full-length sequel to the series “The Ex” that aired on the START online platform in 2018-2021. The intricacies of the plot of the picture may well be understood by those who missed the series, but why would they do it, Julia Shagelman does not understand.

The picture starts right off the bat, without any “in the previous series …”, although here such a preface, perhaps, would not hurt. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine that this film will be attended by an audience unfamiliar with the characters and the plot of the series, and everything should be clear to them from the first shots in which we see a large regional enterprise (later it turns out that this is a kind of “combination” in Kemerovo ) subject to raider capture. After that, the action abruptly jumps to Moscow, where a group therapy session for people struggling with addictions takes place in an empty gym. One of the participants, Ilya (Denis Shvedov), has an important date – six months of sobriety. However, he does not look happy and satisfied, why – it becomes clear when his girlfriend Yana (Lyubov Aksenova) appears on the screen, also an alcoholic and, in addition, a drug addict, who, unlike her lover, cannot, and does not really want to quit these bad excesses. On this occasion, the day before, the couple once again quarreled, Ilya kicked Yana out of the house, and she went into the dead night right in her nightgown and a stylish cardigan thrown over the top.

Ilya and Yana are the main characters of the series “Former”, which began to be shown on START streaming in February 2018. Then the first season was shown on Channel One, and at the end of the year, according to Kinopoisk, it took second place among domestic serial premieres. Inspired by the success, START filmed two more seasons and ended this story in March 2021. True, the dot turned out to be an ellipsis: the matter will not be limited to the now-released full-length film, a multi-part spin-off has also been announced for the 2023/24 season, in which one of the minor characters of the original show will come to the fore.

For three seasons with the frivolous major Yana and the psychologist Ilya, who met in the clinic where she came to overcome drug addiction, no matter what happened. Starting, of course, with their romance, which is incompatible with the professional ethics of any practicing psychologist and unimaginable in a country where this activity is licensed, but in our country, judging by the divergence of such a plot in serial production, it is perceived as something quite normal (Yana was not the only patient, with whom Ilya entered into a relationship). There were also other novels and even marriages, as well as the death of loved ones, the ruin of Yanina’s family, scrip, prison and criminal showdowns.

Showdown something and become the main plot core of the film. Bad people who seized the plant, owned by the mother of the late husband Yana Nina Yegorovna (Era Ziganshina), at the same time kidnap this fighting old woman who loves to fight and swear in order to lock her in a private mental hospital, drug her, deprive her of legal capacity and take away all her property. This stratagem was developed by a lawyer and also a drug addict Gromov (Petar Zekavitsa) and a distant relative of Nina Egorovna Masha (Anastasia Lapina), who lack only villainous laughter to complete the images. Yana must play her part in the conspiracy, confirming the insanity of her former mother-in-law, and receive a huge mansion of her ex-husband as a reward. She agrees not so much out of self-interest, but to prove to Ilya that she can be of use.

Of course, she makes this extremely sensible decision under the influence of alcohol and cocaine, but, having sobered up, she changes her mind and decides to save Nina Yegorovna. Yanina’s mother Irina (Natalya Rogozhkina) and, of course, Ilya join this mission, although, judging by the expression on the artist Shvedov’s face, he has been deadly tired of his girlfriend’s adventures for four years and wants only to see patients (they obviously do not know that disqualification cries for the hero), go to therapy and lay tiles in his apartment. Irina’s boyfriend Viktor (Sergey Lanbamin) performs as a backing vocalist, providing comic relaxation and confirmation of the progressive idea that at 50 years old (plus or minus two years) life, including sexual life, is just beginning.

The film was directed by Anton Megerdichev, who directed the large-scale blockbusters Upward Movement (2017) and Heart of Parma (2022). As part of an intimate story about codependency, he is clearly cramped, so he tries to fill it with action, and Yana’s drunken escapades are shot in the same dramatic rapid speed as the basketball attacks of the Soviet team and bloody medieval battles. This movie, however, does not so much keep you in suspense as it makes you clutch your head with cries of “Why?” and why?” (why, for example, do the heroes driving around Moscow in a stolen car with weapons and drugs never put on their seat belts and not a single traffic police post stopped them?). However, unlike the happy ending, no one promises the audience the answer to these questions.