This is a character study which makes demands on audience patience.  Moving slowly, it builds up a picture of an unusual set of characters and asks us to empathise (not always sympathise) and to try to understand them.

The film provides a tour-de-force opportunity for veteran character actor Rip Torn.  He plays a modern American good ol’ boy, a loud, self-confident long-time producer in the music industry.  The world is certainly his oyster and that is his presumption.

Married a number of times, he now has a younger companion from Russia, whom he met on tour.  They are the loving parents of a young boy.  In the meantime, he has become alienated from his adult son who comes to visit on the occasion of his father’s receiving a life award.

While Torn gives a strong performance, part quiet and domestic, part rambunctious and melodramatic, it is Dina Korzoff (who appeared to great effect in the British film about migrants, The Last Resort) who focuses the film.  Hers seems to be a rather passive performance.  She does not always say a lot – and makes us realise how hard it can be for people speaking in a second language to find the exact word or phrase, or even the right intonation to communicate what they wish.  While anchored to the child, she is also adrift in the American city, something of an appendage to her celebrity companion.

The arrival of the son, who has marriage tensions of his own let alone the strained relationship with his father, precipitates an emotional crisis for her and the need to make some kind of decision about her life and her future.

Many audiences may find this character exploration straining their attention but for those who like something which is evocative rather than explanatory, it should work well.

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