Lonely Woman Seeks Life Companion

Despite its billing as the first glasnost-era Soviet comedy, LONELY WOMAN SEEKS LIFETIME COMPANION has no characters who loudly demand more democracy and freedom, and offers no digressions on what a bad guy that Joe Stalin really was. In fact, there is little in LONELY WOMAN to indicate any particular political epoch, which is its strength. Its bleak look at single life achieves a depressing universality. The film's view of day-to-day Soviet life may even baffle viewers used to conventional media images of gray lumps living a dozen to a room and standing in line for hours to purchase a couple of rotten potatoes. Though not wealthy, the characters, like their...