Therapeutic cinema. “Dads vs Moms”

What do men who are rejected by their wives do? What about women? We know what you thought, only the answer is wrong.

There was an inversion of sex roles. Accordingly, men, as an endangered species, eat, and women, as a symbol of a brighter future, indulge in wine.

Once upon a time there were two sisters Olya and Ira. They often quarreled. And even the pope-general could not reconcile them. But he remembered their dreams for the rest of his life. One loved snakes and dreamed of bringing a snake home, they are warm and good. Another adored the song “My baby, I miss you, I don’t receive letters from you” by Roma Zhukov. She listened to her constantly and dreamed of singing with Roma.

That’s just Comrade General messed up with dreams. Olya loved the snake, and Ira loved the song of Roma. Each of the sisters did not tolerate the addiction of the other. The girls grew up, became mothers and even quarreled with their husbands at the same time in different apartments. The woman is terrible in anger.

A fight doesn’t end without a mediator. His role was played by a general. The story ends with Santa Claus. For the sake of this, it is not a sin to delay the New Year for three months. To find out how it ended and how it began, you need to watch the film “Dads against Moms” directed by Maxim Malinin. Duration 102 minutes. The action takes place mainly indoors, the so-called “living room chronotope” prevails, when the dialogues of the characters take place in the same interior.

We do not think that the film “Dads vs. Moms” is waiting for a rich rental fate. Advertising promotion is not audible and not visible. Who decides such questions, we do not know. It’s a pity. This is such a psychotherapeutic movie with long lengths so that there is time to think. Flavored with a scattering of the truth of modern life, like a raisin roll.

I am the head of the credit department of the bank. Take a loan – I’m sick, take a loan from myself? – says Olga (Elena Balabanova).

Olga’s husband Anton (Artyom Kukhteev) is a programmer, on the basis of string theory in five-dimensional space, learns the secrets of the world. He is first fired, then vice versa.

Their daughter Masha (Elizaveta Medvedeva) is a determined girl to match her mother. When, according to her dream, Santa Claus (Artyom Tkachenko) appears three months late, Masha adamantly pushes the gift away and demands an account, where were you? Then he takes Santa Claus to his room for a private conversation. Santa Claus is dumbfounded, but quick-witted. When, from the words of Masha, she understands what happened to her parents, she quickly offers a version of how to create a miracle for the Dream Machine to fulfill, so that no one quarrels and everyone lives in peace.

The idea, to put it mildly, is not new in the film “Dads vs. Moms” is realized quite harmoniously. She, in fact, is the quintessence of the film.

As for the name, it reflects an outdated stereotype. In the film, mothers become the initiators of quarrels, finding reasons in dads. This is exactly what happens in real life.

Self-confident Olga is unhappy that the unemployed Anton sits on her neck and plays tanks. Guided Irina (Anna Churina) is unhappy with the fact that she is supposedly fat. The world is not exactly what a man sees, even in five-dimensional space along the mythical strings, but the picture that a woman builds according to her whim.

Irina secretly allows her son Igor (Sevastyan Bugaev) to change hockey to ice dancing for the sake of a figure skater girl. Igor’s father, the authoritarian Victor (Roman Postovalov) is furious, dancing is not a man’s sport.

The role-playing structure of the work is simplified as much as possible.

Authoritarian mother Olya forces her daughter Masha to learn Chinese. Guided dad Anton persuades himself rather than his daughter that the Chinese language is simple.

Authoritarian dad Vitya went in for boxing as a child in order to escort his beloved girl to her place of residence in a neighboring yard, in fact, in enemy territory. The girl watched the denouement from the window. She became his wife and secretly, contrary to her husband, allows her son to dance instead of hockey.

Feel the difference. A symmetrical layout leads to a different outcome. Masha is sick and is waiting for a miracle in the form of Santa Claus. Igor is systematically looking for a way out for himself and for Masha, returning her to reality through the realization of a dream.

The on-screen reconstruction of group psychoanalysis forces the characters to acknowledge a universal cause. Parents use their children to treat their own inferiority. That is, replenishment of what was not completed in the implementation of their dreams.

We do not recommend repeating this trick in your own life without special training and the availability of a mediator with adequate motivation. Without this, psychoanalysis can destroy the family, cause persistent mental disorders and even provoke suicide.

Regarding the domestic film “Dads vs. Moms”, an additional or opposite option can be called “Happy Movie”, directed by Hillman Curtis, Ben Nabors, Stefan Sagmeister (USA, 73 min.). He was stubbornly pushed through in Russia, but he did not go. Perhaps due to the presence of nudity with signs of pornography. The plot of the “Happy Film” is declaratively based on science, in fact, imitation.

The search for family happiness has become the dominant narrative in Russian film production, and the base is more reliable. There is no better way to know yourself than by comparison.

Dialogues play a key role. In the tradition of Russian cinema, dialogues with good humor turn dead-end problems into a solvable state. The national peculiarity of lateral thinking is used. In a simple way – a heuristic search for extraordinary short moves.

Children Igor and Masha resolutely declare the right to determine their own destiny. And, in general, this happens when they call on the help of their grandfather-general (Vladimir Steklov) with a martinet character.

An ambulance spectacularly rushes through the streets of the city after a flying deer on the nose of the Volga. The goal is simple, using soldierly methods to stop the attack of everyday democracy, suppress kitchen turbulence and introduce the process of family life into a laminar state. The new reality breaks the usual plans. An external mediator can affect men, but they did not cause the process with an exacerbation, only a trigger.

Comrade General cannot cope with indignant women. But the case is taxiing to the finish line with the support of the poisonous neighbor Ekaterina Pavlovna (Yola Sanko).

In general, it turned out to be a fairy tale for sensitive souls. Sometimes it is awkward to look, as if in front of you is not a screen, but a mirror.

Children are especially good. Modern kids are advanced. Perhaps the world would be a better place if parents no longer shied away from obeying their own children, or at least hearing them.

At the end of the film, the group’s song “Hands Up” sounds:

Minor again
Make your heart explode like dominoes
Come on, I’ll take you, it’s dark outside
And every day with you, it’s all like in a movie.
Remember the moments
Our record on an old cassette
Where we are in love, like children
And there is no one else around.
And according to the plot, I’m at dawn
Gave my feelings in a bouquet
And we believed in our signs
We took tickets for a warm summer.
Old balcony and I hug you on it
Erasing the past like a deuce in a diary
My hand is in your hand
Is it true that without love the stars would not fall from the sky?
What if it weren’t for you, then I would be alone now
I wouldn’t write you so many love songs
Is it true?
Is it true that we send feelings to the sky with signs
That you and I are two people with one heart.

Natalia Vakurova, Lev MOSKOVKIN.