An ubiquitous meditation on realizing you have wasted your life and are unable to do anything about it. All of Checkov's plays are designed around the indolence of our players. Most of the drama is in the implications, and the movie adaptation wouldn't be any different. A big, pompous tragedy doesn't happen because, depending on how you look at it, it has already transpired for these characters. And the brilliance of this cast is that you can both pity and sympathize with them depending on your outlook on life. The said cast is great, even if the Russian "overacting" is slightly galling. The movie is also peppered with instances of inexplicable switching from color to black and white. There is no deeper meaning in this. It's just a technical difficulty.
Review of Uncle Vanya
