THE IDIOT(S) World Cinema

The latest film from co-directors Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert takes an irreverent look at the messy life of one of the world’s great literary icons, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Johnny Flynn), who honeymoons in Baden-Baden with new wife Anna (Aimee Lou Wood), and does his best to avoid working on “The Idiot,” his follow-up to “Crime and Punishment.” As the couple disembark from their train, having reached “the West,” Fyodor soon discovers a love/hate relationship with the decadent German upper classes, embodied in the person of the mysterious and slightly sadistic Natasha F. (Vicky Krieps), whom Fyodor quickly falls for. Also on tour and enjoying the adulation of the haute bourgeoise is Fyodor’s countryman and fellow novelist Ivan Turgenev (Christian Friedel), jealous of Fyodor’s talent, and solicitous towards Anna, who is soon at her wit’s end over Fyodor’s compulsive gambling, and heavy losses. Fyodor and Anna lead unconventional lives and have an unconventional marriage, and most would deem the wastrel Fyodor a hopeless case. And yet, against the odds, the resourceful Anna coaxes great art out of her ridiculous husband. Flynn and Wood are a delight together, plumbing this literary bad romance for much humor and occasionally pathos. Co-director Michał Englert also serves as cinematographer, and his compositions, lighting and camera movements are world class. The film is based on the acclaimed 2021 biography “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky” by Andrew D. Kaufman. –Todd Hitchcock