2023-02-02 23:41:01
In the evening, the daughter of a famous pianist disappears. And the next morning, an ominous client comes to the psychiatrist Alexei (Kirill Kyaro – the star of the series Epidemic, Ask Martha, Treason) – by all indications a maniac. The guest did not introduce himself, but Alexey, after a simple investigation, finds out that it was none other than Vladimir Nesterov, an Internet entrepreneur from the Forbes list (he is played by Daniil Strakhov, one of the most sought-after artists of the 2000s; he was in the “Brigade” and ” Poor Nastya”).
It turns out that an outwardly prosperous person hides his mental disorder from everyone for years. Alexei sincerely tries to help Nesterov, and their relationship quickly goes beyond purely professional – the patient comes to the doctor’s home, gets acquainted with his family. Meanwhile, the second girl disappears, the tormented body of the third is found in the garbage dump. Does Nesterov have an alibi?
It seems that viewers rarely remember the names of screenwriters – but in vain. One of the main reasons to watch the new project of the Kion video service (produced by MTS Media and LookFilm) is the screenwriter Alena Zvantsova (Thaw, Tochka), who, however, has been screening her own scripts for a long time and regularly. It can be a melodrama (“Piece of the Universe”) or a mystical thriller (“Heavenly Judgment”), but always a series with a tightly twisted intrigue.
And that’s what in this series is curious about “The God Complex”, which was staged by director Fluza Farkhshatova (“Ask Martha”, “What Men Talk About. Continued”). If 10 years ago in the detective story “Farewell, my love!” Zvantsova adapted Scandinavian noir, the novelty can be regarded as an export of Korean noir. After all, the best thing about maniacs and revenge is now filmed there (“I saw the devil”, “Confession of a killer”, etc.). However, here in the anamnesis there are clearly Hollywood thrillers of the end of the last century, when everyone could turn out to be a psychopath – a neighbor (“A Lonely White Woman”), a lodger (“Pacific Heights”), and a nanny (“The Hand Rocking the Cradle “). Especially the patient.
The working title of the series – “The Exorcist” – although it is somewhat misleading regarding the genre nature (there is actually no mysticism here), it describes the main conflict much more accurately. Psychiatrist Alexei really exorcise demons, but instead of prayers in his arsenal, heart-to-heart talks and pills are in his arsenal. And the worst nightmare that can only happen to a professional exorcist happens to him: he is convinced of his own impotence. Demons sit in everyone – and in him. It will not be a big spoiler to say that the most terrible things in the series are done by just sane, quite healthy people from the point of view of psychiatry. And they do it for quite prosaic reasons. This is the beautiful sabotage of the “God Complex” against the genre – maniac thrillers usually frighten with the abyss of the subconscious, while Zvantsova’s evil is ordinary, rationally explainable. Trite.
Unfortunately, the implementation turned out to be an order of magnitude paler than the idea. The accents are strangely shifted, important things are said in passing. As a result, not every corrosive viewer will understand all the subtexts. Sincerely sorry for the unrealized potential of many storylines. Take, for example, Nesterov’s relationship with the waitress Nastya (Marina Vasilyeva from “Dislike”), whom he, a likely killer, hires as a friend for evening conversations so as not to lose contact with reality. You can shoot a separate series about this, but here they managed a few scenes. Sometimes the characteristics of the characters are reduced to banal gastronomic details – for example, a pianist’s friend (Nikolai Schreiber from Arrhythmia) constantly eats burgers, and a stubborn cop (Mikhail Troinik from Chick) puts a lot of sugar in tea.
It is not quite fair to blame only one director for all the shortcomings. Apparently, the project was filmed in a wild hurry, so that the artists did not even have time to get used to their roles. Of the main characters, only Shamil Khamatov (Mutual Consent, Behappy), who played the bohemian pianist and father of the disappeared girl, is the most organic. But in general, the second plan – Marina Vasilyeva, Nikolai Schreiber, Irina Leonova (“Kuprin. Pit”) – looks stronger than the first. It is especially a pity for the actress Olga Lerman (“Rodkom”) – she simply did not come up with a role. Children play very well – which is rare, and there are many of them in the frame.
Kion’s noir lineup (“Scythe”, “Possessed”, now “God Complex”) takes place in an extremely conventional reality – stylish, fashionably filmed, but devoid of a social dimension. The police station resembles the office of an IT company, a boarding school for elderly people with disabilities was “found” at VDNKh. Why not – Hollywood films also rarely look like real America. The problem is that it was not possible to settle in, to make these sterile spaces plausible. According to the plot, the girl is lost near the Moscow River and the authorities even suspect that she drowned. But it is impossible to believe in this premise – we see how far the restaurant is from the water.
“God Complex” consists of five episodes that will air on Fridays until the beginning of March. But it’s better to watch the series in one gulp in order to fully appreciate the plot rhymes and character arcs, especially since the ending eliminates many flaws.-
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