A preposterous crime thriller that becomes entangled in disparate elements, Russian Doll is a thoroughly confusing and silly film. Melanie Brockmann Gaffney is wasted as the lead in an unconvincing tale about a tough, self-destructive cop named Viola, who is grieving the two-year-old death of her wife while searching for an abducted woman. The latter crime is absurdly tied up with a community theater production of a play featuring a script that might have been purloined by its reputed author. The collision of a noir-ish kidnapping drama with a tea cozy mystery set amidst a hokey stage production is as bad an idea as it sounds. Writer-director Ed Gaffney (the star’s father) is out of his depth here, trying to resurrect a Dashiell Hammett world in a contemporary context. Not recommended. (T. Keogh)
Russian Doll
Wolfe, 82 min., not rated, DVD: $26.99 Volume 33, Issue 4
Russian Doll
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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