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Review: Moscow, Belgium

Tired mom meets 'viking' trucker
By LANCE GOULD  |  April 21, 2009
3.0 3.0 Stars


VIDEO: The trailer for Moscow, Belgium

Matty (Barbara Sarafian) is a weather-beaten wreck, a postal-worker mom of three whose vacillating husband has (pretty much) left her for a younger woman. Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet), 12 years her junior, is a bon-vivant trucker whose wife has definitely left him for a prick of a lawyer.

Johnny's a "viking" whose quick temper has made his face a familiar one to the authorities in this working-class Belgian neighborhood known as "Moscow." But when his absurdly huge yellow rig and her family sedan meet cute in a supermarket-parking-lot fender-bender, Matty too unleashes a formidable rage — at Johnny, at men in general, at European Accident Forms. This is the first step to a rediscovery of herself that's spurred on by Johnny's oafish but welcome advances.

Christophe Van Rompaey's romantic comedy (original title Aanrijding in Moscou) ultimately loses steam when too many unlikely plots convene in a clichéd dinner-table battle royale, but Sarafian is captivating as Matty, a Flemish master of her own domain.

  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Movies, Moscow,  More more >
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