Well, I’m going to go out on a limb here and give this film a very mixed review. There’s no question but that, as others have noted here, it’s visually stunning, a veritable feast for the eyes. The interior and exterior shots of the Alexander Palace are gorgeous, the sets and costumes are not only beautiful but also as historically accurate as possible (for example, Nicholas and Alexandra’s bedroom is recreated so faithfully that it is almost indistinguishable from photographs of the real thing posted here at the AP site). But that’s it for historical accuracy. The minute you start paying attention to what the characters are actually saying, you realize that what this film presents is not an episode of Russian history but a new Russian national myth about the last tsar and his family. ?
I suspected this would be the case at the very beginning of the film, when we’re informed that, despite the loss of 2 million men at the front, in February 1917 the power and prestige of the imperial dynasty remained unaffected! Well, that’s news to me and to anyone else who’s ever read anything about the Russian Revolution. Not surprisingly, no mention is made here of Rasputin, recently murdered, or of his deleterious effect on the Romanovs’ reputation. Because as it turns out the Romanovs were "really" brought down not by their own actions or by the Russian people themselves but by the treacherous, lily-livered elite and a conspiracy of "outside" agitators. Thus the outbreak of protests in Petersburg is presented as peaceful and of no danger to the monarchy until two mysterious men (German agents? socialists?) are shown throwing a bomb into the middle of a demonstration. The implication being that the March Revolution was the handiwork of agents provocateurs, and not a "real" expression of the popular will.
Admittedly, maybe I missed something somewhere: my Russian is not what it used to be, so I didn’t always understand all the dialogue, not to mention the fact that the sound in this film is truly lousy – I had to turn the volume up to maximum to hear anything! But as the movie unfolded, my worst suspicions tended to be confirmed… More than once I caught a whiff of bad old Russian anti-Semitism. Didn’t anyone else notice how all the Moscow Bolsheviks had dark beards and long noses and looked suspiciously like every anti-Semite’s stereotypical idea of what a Jew should look like? Lenin conspiring with Sverdlov and Trotsky (!) to kill the Romanovs (no controversy here about who’s idea it actually was! Moscow was fully in charge)… meanwhile a devoted Russian soldier is giving his blood to save the tsarevich’s life… How symbolic!
Also note how the filmmakers are at great pains to show how very Russian the imperial family was… not only in their religious faith but also down to singing Russian romances together and dancing about to the strains of a balalaika (played by the devoted Russian soldier). It’s all beautifully done, of course, and very emotionally affecting, but somehow so manipulative, too, it kind of bothered me. For example, I didn’t understand why the grand duchesses’ hair still hadn’t grown out when over a year had passed since their heads were shaved, unless this was supposed to remind us subliminally of concentration camp victims… Then, cut from the brutal, bloody execution scene to the year 2000 and the ceremonial burial of the imperial family in the cathedral, with everyone in the congregation holding up images of the holy martyrs... I found myself with tears in my eyes… it was all so very effective! But in the end I’m still not quite sure how I feel about this movie. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Kind of like biting into a beautiful, juicy red apple and discovering it’s poisonous.
I finally got to see this movie and I say I have to agree with you. Visually, it was excellent, but everything about it is so white-washed. The politics were glossed over and the Romanovs portrayed as very saint-like. I disliked Alexei in particular. Anastasia had some personality, but it feels really toned down. I suppose that if you come at it from an Orthodox standpoint, it's a great film, but I didn't care for it that much.
Things were bad in Russia, and it was because the system just didn't work and Nicholas refused to reform it. It wasn't because of a few bad men instigating things, it was because Nicholas was an autocrat who responded to unrest with force of arms.
I thought it also did a poor job of showing how the family suffered during their captivity. I was reading "The Race to Save the Romanovs" and the telegrams going out about the royal family's living conditions painted a very different picture than we're shown here. The family was relying on money from the underground monarchists and the soldiers at Ekatrinburg were cruel, particularly to the four GDs. In this movie, there are a few rude soldiers, but until they all get killed at the end, everything seems quite pleasant. They're just such saintly people that they can't help but win everyone except the really bad guys over to their side!
