Yegor has a successful life – together with his wife Maya presents a sports program on television and raises his daughter Marusya, earns well and looks good. One evening, Yegor witnesses how a drunken man beats a young girl and comes to the aid of a stranger: the victim survives, the attacker is behind bars. But while the brave hero is honored at work, the criminal goes free and ends what he started – killing the girl.
Yegor, learning what happened, despairs. In search of new meanings, he turns his attention to strangers: he begins to visit the pediatric oncology center, joins the LizaAlert search team. But the hero’s altruism spoils his relationship with those around him. Confused, Yegor finds himself completely alone: how to help everyone without wasting himself without a trace?
Pyotr Todorovsky’s new film is a representative of that moral concern cinema that took its name in the late 70s but returned to domestic cinema only a few years ago. For example, Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Dislike, Yury Bykov’s The Fool, Oksana Karas’ Doctor Liza when it was released.
All these films (and others like them) are combined with the ability to give the audience a direct heart massage. Yes, the tapes can get caught up in sentimentality and even manipulativeness, but it is impossible not to notice the effect produced: after watching them, you want to hug those who are nearby, look around and understand what part of the overall task of doing good. With an important caveat: take control and don’t push too hard.
In his work, Todorovsky tries to understand the spiritual impulses of the hero: does Egor want to be useful in order to help others or so that he does not lose the meaning of his own life? The characters in the movie are lost in personal assumptions. Yegor claims to be looking for hope, but his voice loses its firmness when his wife flaunts it in response: “It’s not about sick children or a dead girl. There is a void in it that neither we nor children nor other people can fill.
Almost inseparable on the screen in recent years, Efremov and Starshenbaum (behind them joint “Summer”, “dorm” and “Sisters”) once again create a powerful dramatic duet. In doing so, the film manages to avoid the trap of drama. “Like a Man”trying to explore the harmful idea of masculinity at the expense of every conceivable sexist prejudice against women.
Todorovsky equates the rights of both heroes and his own vision of truth: equally right and equally wrong. No one can judge them: neither time, nor experience, nor life itself.
“Healthy man” It is not a global story of the ultimate triumph of good over evil and sensitivity to indifference. This is a lively portrait that is still taking shape, gaining new twists. The director doesn’t have a full answer either. Is the hero right when he pushes the family into the background for the sake of strangers in trouble? Of course not. Is he doing a favor by responding to the grief of others? Definitely yes.
It seems that in the end, Egor is getting the desired vitality, as if losing his skin. She no longer runs away from her emotions and turns away from her own reflection in the mirror, but now she’s totally annoying. It either found solid support under its feet or lost it completely. However, the important thing is that this person has a civil war, the place of war is the heart, and it accelerates its rhythm and prevents it from turning into stone.