Back In The U.S.S.R.

History waits for no movie and recent transformative events in the former Soviet Union may have already dated this diverting romantic thriller. Touted as the first US film shot entirely on location in the Soviet Union, BACK IN THE U.S.S.R. provides an intriguing glimpse of "glasnost" in Moscow during the tumultuous Gorbachev era. This absorbing sociological backdrop is more interesting than the shopworn sub-Hitchcockian intrigues.

Plot machinations are set in motion with the excavation of a chest containing a precious Russian art treasure: a religious icon depicting the fabled Black Madonna. While transporting the treasure into town, a solemn, bearded monk is vi...