I had to stop watching this 20 minutes into the movie because it truly was astounding how empty the characters were and how borderline offensive they were.
Audience were never given a reason why Katya is the object of the men's affection because there are dozens of blonde beautiful women from Germany in Europe. I had no clue what Katya's personality is, and apparently so did Ikal. He was somehow shocked to learn Katya drank wine or had a lot of previous romantic partners midway of their relationship. I guess he only liked her for her looks. Yet the movie had the audacity to criticize the foreign men in this movie. The indian student was criticized for treating women poorly, when the main character himself did not view women as people with personalities, only looks.
Characters in this movies are literal cartoons. The Indian student was presented as the personification of Bollywood, at one point dancing behind a tree with a scarf. The spanish student would only think about women and love, and was a slacker. The woman from Giorgia was a chess grandmaster, and apparently can only speak in chess-related metaphors. These were their identities. They had no other personalities. Ikal himself had such little personality, I wondered what attracted Katya in the first place. Ikal had no redeeming qualities and no common interest with Katya, Ikal wasn't good looking, he wasn't rich, he was struggling with his atudies, he wasn't fun or outgoing, he wasn't funny. The "relationship" that formed was truly mindboggling. Keep in mind Katya asked Ikal first before she got to know him, because by this movie's logic of course German women are bold and sexually agressive. Ikal was also portrayed as an obsessive stalker, pining over a girl over 20 years ago that he knew for less than a year. I guess in 20 years he knew of no other girl in his life.
I can only guess the people who were involved in this movie were only looking for the free trip to Paris.
Audience were never given a reason why Katya is the object of the men's affection because there are dozens of blonde beautiful women from Germany in Europe. I had no clue what Katya's personality is, and apparently so did Ikal. He was somehow shocked to learn Katya drank wine or had a lot of previous romantic partners midway of their relationship. I guess he only liked her for her looks. Yet the movie had the audacity to criticize the foreign men in this movie. The indian student was criticized for treating women poorly, when the main character himself did not view women as people with personalities, only looks.
Characters in this movies are literal cartoons. The Indian student was presented as the personification of Bollywood, at one point dancing behind a tree with a scarf. The spanish student would only think about women and love, and was a slacker. The woman from Giorgia was a chess grandmaster, and apparently can only speak in chess-related metaphors. These were their identities. They had no other personalities. Ikal himself had such little personality, I wondered what attracted Katya in the first place. Ikal had no redeeming qualities and no common interest with Katya, Ikal wasn't good looking, he wasn't rich, he was struggling with his atudies, he wasn't fun or outgoing, he wasn't funny. The "relationship" that formed was truly mindboggling. Keep in mind Katya asked Ikal first before she got to know him, because by this movie's logic of course German women are bold and sexually agressive. Ikal was also portrayed as an obsessive stalker, pining over a girl over 20 years ago that he knew for less than a year. I guess in 20 years he knew of no other girl in his life.
I can only guess the people who were involved in this movie were only looking for the free trip to Paris.
