The acting was good to excellent, and the overall plot themes were clear. This group of friends leaps into post-Soviet Russia and makes a fortune by bending the rules such that there are rules, and playing the political side of the economic game. In the course of doing this, they run afoul of a government that is equally corrupt. This is a setting that a well made film might turn into a masterpiece.
Unfortunately it doesn't happen. There are so many throwbacks and forward scenes that one would need to watch the movie with pen and paper in hand, tracing the characters and their actions to try and keep track of the specifics. The movie tries to help out by actually labeling each scene with a timeline, before and after the death of Plato, the central character. But even with these guideposts, the back and forth movement of time requires extraordinary effort to translate into meaningful flows and never develops a satisfying momentum. It is akin to reading a history in which a few paragraphs of Alexander are followed by a series on Hiroshima and then by a brief exposition on the founding of Rome, followed by a vignette on the Crusades.
No doubt some will see this approach as a puzzle challenge. Personally I thought it interfered with both the entertainment value of Tycoon, and the capacity of the movie to sustain intensity of interest. The end result is a crippled performance in which one is tempted to throw up their hands and say, "Ah, they are all just crooks, let's see some action". If that was the intent, the movie does provide some gratification, but it could have been so much more.
Unfortunately it doesn't happen. There are so many throwbacks and forward scenes that one would need to watch the movie with pen and paper in hand, tracing the characters and their actions to try and keep track of the specifics. The movie tries to help out by actually labeling each scene with a timeline, before and after the death of Plato, the central character. But even with these guideposts, the back and forth movement of time requires extraordinary effort to translate into meaningful flows and never develops a satisfying momentum. It is akin to reading a history in which a few paragraphs of Alexander are followed by a series on Hiroshima and then by a brief exposition on the founding of Rome, followed by a vignette on the Crusades.
No doubt some will see this approach as a puzzle challenge. Personally I thought it interfered with both the entertainment value of Tycoon, and the capacity of the movie to sustain intensity of interest. The end result is a crippled performance in which one is tempted to throw up their hands and say, "Ah, they are all just crooks, let's see some action". If that was the intent, the movie does provide some gratification, but it could have been so much more.