Moscow on the Hudson

Vladimir Ivanoff plays saxophone in a Moscow circus and is used to queues, paperwork and the KGB. The circus tours to New York. In the middle of Bloomingdale's, in front of his minder, Vladimir suddenly asks to defect. He stays. What follows is not what freedom is but how hard it is: finding work, paying rent, knowing nobody, and choosing one coffee out of fifty. Its best-known scene is exactly that: a man collapsing in front of the coffee aisle in a supermarket. The film neither blesses America nor condemns it; around Vladimir are people from Cuba, Italy and Africa, and all their stories meet in the same place. Paul Mazursky directed and co-wrote. Robin Williams plays Vladimir; he studied Russian for the part and speaks almost entirely in Russian through the first half. He plays the saxophone himself. Who it is for: anyone who likes eighties American comedy, immigration stories and Robin Williams's dramatic side. Who it is not for: anyone expecting sharp politics. The film handles the Cold War too gently, the last section starts repeating, and some supporting characters rest on cliché.