12

12

type

Movie

Current Status

In Season

mpaa

PG-13

runtime

159 minutes

Limited Release Date

03/04/09

performer

Sergei Makovetsky, Aleksei Petrenko, Sergey Garmash, Yuriy Stoyanov

director

Nikita Mikhalkov

distributor

Sony Pictures Classics

author

Vladimir Moiseyenko, Nikita Mikhalkov, Aleksandr Novototsky

genre

Drama, Mystery and Thriller

It’s fascinating, in theory, to take the premise of 12 Angry Men— a lone juror believes a murder ? defendant is innocent, then tries to sway his fellow jurors — and transplant it to Moscow. Yet ?Nikita Mikhalkov’s movie 12, an Oscar nominee last year, has none of the crisp passion or suspense of the 1957 Sidney Lumet version; it’s bloated, heavy-handed, and lugubrious. Each juror, with a misery so blustery it becomes deadeningly repetitious, acts out his own nationalistic struggle as they all weigh the fate of a young Chechen accused of killing his adoptive Russian father. C

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