Anton Chekhov’s The Duel

Directed by Dover Koshashvili

(Not Rated)

***

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Anton Chekhov’s The Duel is the “most successful literary adaptation” I’ve seen in years, said J. Hoberman in The Village Voice. In this “intelligently staged and impeccably crafted” period drama, director Dover Koshashvili has deftly tapped into the rhythm of Chekhov’s novella about self-deception among the Russian bourgeoisie. Laevsky, a self-loathing civil servant (Andrew Scott) runs away to a seaside town with his mistress (Fiona Glascott). Over the summer, he tires of her and plots his escape, using money reluctantly lent by a zoologist named Van Koren (Tobias Menzies). As the plot draws the two men closer together, Chekhov pits them against each other, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Laevsky, a frustrated intellectual, blames society for his shortcomings; Van Koren, a social Darwinist, despises Laevsky’s ennui. Throughout the highbrow histrionics, the director deftly “mixes moments of bitterness and laughter.” Koshashvili’s film never quite “develops an overarching sense of purpose,” said Sam Adams in the A.V. Club. Still, he creates a keenly observed and consistently surprising social milieu, and it’s a “pleasure simply to linger in the characters’ company.”