I am not a fan of this recent string of Netflix films that are foreign but attempt to pass themselves off as in the U. S. Just take place "in" the country it's supposed to be, why not?
That isn't normally a huge deal in these films, but it was a definite distraction in this one. For starters:
-If you're going to fake a city, don't fake NYC unless you have a TON of minority extras. Where did all the black and brown people go in NYC?!
-Nice fake NYC skyline.
-Way too much obviously European architecture in the buildings. Way too many people doing really poor American accents. The dad cop? Obviously Dutch or German. The kids ALSO had Dutch accents lol! The dark haired guy who helps the protagonist? Dutch or Russian accent.
-Again, the dad cop bad guy, FYI to whoever cast this film: No American cop has EVER looked like that. He should've been like "Eh son, come home, we go to disco."
-Typical of these films, there's one true blue American that is supposed to make us think it's in the U. S. Didn't work.
The story itself is vaguely poignant, and it speaks of a real serious problem in the world. But I just couldn't get past the "fake American" setting with very poor effort to make you think it's there. How many Russian-only banquet halls are in NYC? Lol.
Oh, and no human on Earth would say to a complete stranger they just met "I don't think anyone loves you". Pretty bad dialogue in this film, too. Probably "lost in translation" from some Dutch or Russian saying.
