Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This is clear before humans even make their first appearance.
Zvyagintsev opens with a winterscape of dead trees.
Shots two through nine offer variations thereof.
Two ducks drift by in shots ten and 11.
The next shot is a large building with an empty lot, over which a Russian flag flutters grimly.
Mute with anger and grief, Alyosha refuses to make eye contact.
To a woman doing her hair, she complains that her son is beginning to smell like her husband.
But it turns out Zvyagintsev has more on his mind than emotional cruelty to kids.
A cold rage, of course.
But Zvyagintsev doesnt have Hanekes punk snottiness.
He hurts you so youll feel.
In the second hour ofLoveless,he generates an aura of humanism out of thin air.
He does so in stages.
Its a wonder Zhenya has an ounce of compassion for anything.
It gets into your blood.
Normally, a scenario that centers on a vanished child would make you sick with suspense and dread.
The movie has its puzzlers.
Is the director reminding us that love is inconstant?
*This article appears in the February 5, 2018, issue ofNew YorkMagazine.
