Very mixed... The director apparently couldn't make up his mind whether to make a goofy East-European Kusturica-like comedy, or a high-brow movie of redemption through music. So he made both at the same time.
There are a lot of jokes for the very low brow, and way too many clichés and moments where I had to cover my eyes in dismay at the horribly bad taste (the Russian mobster wedding, the gypsy, Russian & Jewish clichés, the Russian mafioso's mother etc).
Melanie Laurent saves the day, though. And in the end it does come out at the other end as a story of redemption through music, but I just wish the director had chosen to tell it with delicate humor instead...
There are a lot of jokes for the very low brow, and way too many clichés and moments where I had to cover my eyes in dismay at the horribly bad taste (the Russian mobster wedding, the gypsy, Russian & Jewish clichés, the Russian mafioso's mother etc).
Melanie Laurent saves the day, though. And in the end it does come out at the other end as a story of redemption through music, but I just wish the director had chosen to tell it with delicate humor instead...