Mission London (2010)

Absolutely the worst movie.

The first must-see film of the year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This movie was recommended to me by a Bulgarian friend who proudly described it as a world class motion picture. It was supposed to be a comedy, but after watching it I was no longer sure what the genre was. It had only a few funny scenes a person who was not brought up in communist Bulgaria would find funny. I seriously doubt the story would reach an audience outside of Bulgaria. Some countries of the former communist block are its best shot. Choosing a location outside Bulgaria to make the movie more appealing did not help in my case. Neither did adding some native English speaking actors to the cast. Acting of the Bulgarian cast was sub-par. I could not make sense of some of their English sentences. If that were intentional, they were not targeting English speaking audience for sure. The story had the potential for a B-movie, but the execution fell short of that. The Bulgarian film industry has a long way to go before it could be accepted by a wider audience.

I'm not a Bulgarian, but I absolutely loved this movie (well, in the beginning it seemed a bit vague, but soon the jokes began to fall out of the closet), probably because I'm from the same region and sharing similar history, therefore I have recognized many of the cultural clichés used in the movie. I loved the character of the President's wife, as well as the ambassadors. Well casted and brilliantly written. Loved the worried British ornithologist part. These scenes beautifully infiltrated some of the English clichés - as we, Eastern Europeans see them - into the movie. Overall I am really happy that Bulgarians could produce such a movie. Never could have happened in Lithuania - we are too serious. It's very brave and it's a talent to be able to laugh from yourself.

For years, I've heard Bulgarian audiences wonder why we cannot produce a movie that holds up when compared to Hollywood comedies. Well, now we have. And the result is pretty satisfying. The first thing that struck me about the movie was how professionally it was made. The camera-work, the editing, the sound mixing, everything was of a pretty high standard, which is not something that Bulgarian films have recently managed. The acting was generally mediocre and the dialogue was sloppy at times, but overall all scenes were watchable, even the more talky ones. The focus of the movie was not in the performances anyway. The tempo was brilliant. At one point I thought the scenes were too short and the film would lack cohesiveness, but by the ending this style of editing makes sense and the film plays great, seeming neither too short, nor too long. While this is predominantly a comedy, deeper themes are there and they are examined in a non-intrusive way even if they are mainly Bulgarian-specific. Being able to understand all the jokes will enhance the viewing immensely but that does not mean that foreign audiences will not appreciate the film. Overall I give it 8/10 simply because the movie is head and shoulders above any Bulgarian comedy that has been attempted in the last decades. For non-Bulgarian audiences the film is a solid 7.

This is a hilarious movie, especially for Bulgarians. I am not sure how much of it will be comprehensible for a foreign audience, and I'm looking forward to some non-Bulgarian reviews. Anyway, there is a lot to laugh about. The film presents in a very benign, comical way many of the shortcomings and limitations of the Bulgarian mindset. The First Lady, the Ambassador, the embassy cook - the characters are fleshy and ring true, yet very funny. I also liked the cinematography. The soundtrack was cool, but a few Bulgarian songs could definitely be added for more authenticity. All in all Mission London is definitely worth watching if you want to know more about the peculiarities and daily challenges of the Bulgarian spirit.