A ROUGH DRAFT [2018]

 WHAT WORLD WOULD YOU CHOOSE?  

A ROUGH DRAFT is a Russian film based on a Russian novel which I haven't read.  That's a shame because the movie (and I'm assuming the novel) is loaded with interesting ideas which probably come across a lot better in the book.  The movie itself concerns a guy named Kirill whose identity is slowly erased from the world and his family and friends no longer know him.  This is done by some government organization that wants to recruit Kirill into becoming a "customs officer" in charge of multiple portals to different version of Earth.  Kirill is set up in a tower in which the portals are accessed by doors and he is given Superman-like powers and also a sort of electronic leash that only allows him to travel 15 kilometers beyond the tower; any more and he suffers pain and his flesh turns him into one of those clear plastic anatomy figures you saw in science class to show the internal organs of humans. 

Once in the job, Kirill (and all other such "agents") can be stabbed or likewise killed and then are able to recover by drinking water.  They are now no longer "human" and have become immortal as well as being able to control objects with their minds.  All these aspects are strongly influenced by THE MATRIX as becomes apparent quite early; Kirill more than once assumed the "bending backwards to avoid bullets" Neo-pose.  Our boy Kirill is apparently the most powerful recruit the government has had for this project (Please don't call him "the one") and is able to open previously closed portals.  Unlike THE MATRIX, Kirill isn't given any choice as to whether or not he's going to join in; his past life is destroyed and if he doesn't cooperate he'll probably be offed.  It seems to me that's not really a good way to ensure job performance.  Consequently, Kirill pretty much constantly rebels (Well, what did you expect, government???  Destroying a guy's entire life doesn't really inspire loyalty!).   Now, there's an alternate earth that's had a nuclear holocaust, a steampunk earth etc.  Then there's a utopian earth where, we discover, they test things out on our regular earth so that the bad and naughty things don't happen in the utopia to spoil things.  Basically, the film is about the inevitable conflict involving all of this stuff; making the regular Earth a "rough draft" for the utopian Earth.

A ROUGH DRAFT is certainly very much influenced by THE MATRIX films, as I've said, but there are SO many more ideas crammed into this movie that sorta made it inevitable that audiences and critics were underwhelmed at the film's near-incomprehensibility.  These leads me to want to read the original book (which the movie apparently took huge liberties with) to see all these ideas fleshed out with room to breathe (I can only assume). Even at nearly 2 hours, A ROUGH DRAFT can barely manage to cram it all in.  Events happen at such a fast clip that the viewer barely has time to register one idea before another is introduced.  The movie is a fragmentary experience as events careen from one to another with the viewer barely able to gasp a "But wait . . . . . what . . . . ???".  Truthfully, this would've worked better as a TV series rather than a movie so that all the concepts and events could happen at a more reasonable rate.  Other reasons given for the poor reputation of A ROUGH DRAFT are the poor acting and cheap CGI effects.  Well, the acting isn't top notch (especially lead actor Nikita Volkov who was probably cast more for his resemblance to a love child between Robert Pattison and Nathan Fillion than for any thespic expertise.  But the acting, as a whole, if OK if not spectacular.  And the CGI is very cheap/fake looking to be sure; however, in my opinion even the best/most expensive CGI still looks extremely fake and cartoony to me so I don't have a problem with this aspect of the film either.  This, to me, is an OK film without being one I'd wholeheartedly recommend.  A ROUGH DRAFT is basically a film that you just have to roll with as it rockets to one set-up to the next with no chance to catch your breath in between.  The ideas are sufficiently interesting that, even if not executed particularly well, still give the viewer something interesting and kinda fun to sit through.  In all truthfulness, I was never bored while watching it.  I just think it needed a much better director -- and even then, I don't think they could've done much more with it without cutting a ton of stuff from the film.  Nah, I think the way to go with this was a TV series.  I hear there's even a sequel to the novel so there's plenty of subject matter to sustain it.  So yeah, A ROUGH DRAFT is an interesting if severely flawed swing and a miss.

Oh and definitely watch it in the original Russian language with subtitles because the dubbing is absolutely awful!