“Brighton 4th”- Looking for the 1st [MOVIE REVIEW]
Leven Tedaishvili as Kakhi in “Brighton 4th.” Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber.
“Brighton 4th is the slight story of the travels of a Georgian (as in the Republic of Georgia) to the United States to try and rescue his wayward son. Georgia’s official entry to the Oscars is a slice of life glimpse at lives that straddle two continents. Would that it were more than a glimpse.
Kakhi, a former wrestling champion, continues to command respect after decades away from the sport. Still an upstanding citizen, he seems to be an island of righteousness surrounded by poor, unfulfilled lowlifes who lead poverty-stricken debauched lives. We meet him as he encounters his brother who has just lost his sole possession, an apartment, to gambling on a soccer game. It was a sure thing, he moans, and it’s really the bank’s fault. With the money in hand, having received it from his industrious wife, now working in the United States, he arrived at the bank only to be told to come back in an hour. By that time, he had already bet the money and lost. Kakhi faces a similar problem. His son Soso, an illegal living in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, is no longer studying for his medical exams. Kakhi’s wife, terribly worried, sends him to check up on their son.
Welcomed to Brighton Beach by his sister-in-law who owns a house where every room is rented out, he reveals nothing about her husband’s recent losses. Sharing a bunk-bedded room with Soso, he learns the sad truth. Soso, as Kakhi suspected, has a gambling problem and has not only lost all his money but is in debt to the tune of $14,000 to a local Georgian mobster. With this debt, his dreams of a medical career have blown up. His plans for a sham green card marriage to a sympathetic woman named Lena depended on a $15,000 payment, something he will, in all likelihood never save because of his debt and the nature of the under-the-table jobs he can get.
Going to the beachside restaurant where Amir, the gangster to whom he owes the debt, Soso is accompanied by his father and Lena. Kakhi gives his son $2,000 to pay down the loan. Amir, presiding over a game of cards with his cronies, tells him it’s all or nothing and there will be no extension of time. Soso, like a moth to a flame, is drawn into the game and promptly loses the $2,000. It will be up to Kakhi to find a way to prevent the death he sees in his beloved son’s future.
Nadia Mikhalkova as Lena and Giorgi Tabidze as Soso in “Brighton 4th.” Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The story, itself, is worthy even if it doesn’t break new ground. What, after all, wouldn’t a loving father do for his profligate son? A truly grim portrait with little offsetting humor is depicted in all the characters. Even the one side-story involving a man who is months in arrears to his employees, all illegals without recourse, is more depressing when weighed against the nonsensical efforts to punish him. What does emerge, however, is a fully developed character study of Kakhi, an honorable man who has continued to live up to the reverence his fellow Georgians, including Amir, hold for him.
But many opportunities were lost. Although called “Brighton 4th,” a chance to fully illuminate this unique village within Brooklyn is missed. Brighton Beach is an enclave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Initially with a high percentage of Russian Jews and Holocaust survivors, it now has a more diverse Eastern European and Western Asian population of Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, and Azerbaijanis, with the occasional -Stanian (as in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan). Russians far outnumber the other immigrants and most business signs are printed in both English and Russian; some only in Russian. It is not unusual to find huge swaths of the population who do not speak English. Walking along the ocean front that overlooks the better known Coney Island and its amusement park, one finds restaurant after restaurant. The scene depicted in the saloon where Soso goes to negotiate his debt can be observed up and down the boardwalk in countless establishments advertising food in the afternoon, private rooms, and adult entertainment at night. Brighton Beach should have been one of the well-defined characters in this ultimately depressing film where hopes and dreams are obliterated by human frailty. The film gives Brighton Beach the air of a low class 20th century mafia community but it is so much more.
With the exception of Kakhi, the characters have no redeeming values, just promises broken and narcissistic schemes to skip the line, just like home. If they were searching for a better life, they, instead, found one that replicates the hopelessness of home and maybe that’s the point.
Leven Tedaishvili as Kakhi is the main reason to see this movie. A former Olympic and world championship wrestler in the 1970s, his acting resumé is essentially non-existent. His quiet resolve and expressively sad but determined eyes carry the film. Owning every line on his tired face, you recognize that he will do anything for his son. Giorgi Tabidze as Soso effectively portrays the belief of every gambling addict that “this will be the last time” or “I can win this and quit.” His feeling of hopelessness balanced by hope seeps out of every pore. The other actors, including Nadia Mikhalkova playing Lena the proposed Green Card fiancée, are not given enough development for them to be anything other than cardboard stand-ins for a type. More’s the pity as Mikhalkova has a long list of credits and starred in the Oscar-winning drama of “Burnt by the Sun” that was directed by her father Nikita Mikhalkova and released in the U.S. in 2010 (1994 in the Soviet Union).
Written by Boris Frumin and directed by Levan Koguashvili, blame must be shared equally in the failure of this film to fully engage the audience. With the exception of Levan Tedaishvili who transcends any story superficiality, plot overrides character development. The missed potential of exploring the inner workings and effect of Brighton Beach on this immigrant population lies firmly with the director. In short, it all could have been so much better. Was it good enough? Not for me.
In Georgian, Russian, and English with English subtitles.
Opening Friday February 11 at the Laemmle Royal.