'Up and Down' - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

'Up and Down' and all around, Prague's populace copes

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

What's a hardworking Czech crook to do these days to make a living in Prague?

The Albanians have the train station. The Arabs have Wenceslas Square. The Chinese are working Prague, too. And the Gypsies are just about anywhere they want.

Sony Pictures Classics

'Up and Down'

B+

The verdict: A rich human comedy with a Balkan accent.

Director: Jan Hrebejk
Starring: Petr Forman, Emilia Vasaryova and Jan Triska
Run time: 108 minutes
Release date: February 25, 2005
Rating: R for language, sexual content and brief violence.
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Such is the fragmented, upside-down world of "Up and Down," a playful social comedy set in the Czech Republic at a moment of transition from Soviet domination to democracy. Once a place to flee from during the Communist years, the former Czechoslovakia is now a destination country for immigrants from all over the world. Some adjustment is needed by natives and newcomers as Prague becomes multicultural.

Like "Love Actually" with a Balkan accent, "Up and Down" crisscrosses among several stories, with main characters in one plot showing up as subordinate or even tangential ones in another.

There are, however, two major story threads. In one, a pair of truckers swap food stories about eating deep-fried bat in Thailand and horse salami supplemented by mink as they drive a cargo of illegal Indian immigrants across the Czech border. Dumping them in the middle of nowhere (Germany's that way, Europe that way, they say helpfully), the truckers later discover a baby has been left behind in the back.

Instead of abandoning it in the woods, they leave it at a black-market pawnshop, where it's sold to Miluska (Natasa Burger), who's so hungry for an infant of her own, she's been prowling around amusement parks for prams that have been left alone for a few minutes. She's unable to have children, and she can't adopt because her husband, Frantisek (Jiri Machacek), a sweet-natured security guard, has a record, thanks to earlier shenanigans as a soccer thug.

Meanwhile, across town, in a much nicer neighborhood, Otakar (Jan Triska), a respected professor, has breakfast in his elegant villa before heading to class, where he unexpectedly collapses. His impending surgery summons his grown-up son, Martin (Petr Forman, son of director Milos), back from Australia, where he's been for 20 years. Waiting for Martin at the airport is his mother, Vera (Emilia Vasaryova), whom his father left years ago for a younger woman, Hana (Ingrid Timkova). They now have a teenage daughter, and thus the stage is set for one of the nastiest, funniest extended-family reunions ever put on film. Vera spews venom and sarcasm over dinner, saying hilariously inappropriate things, while Hana tries to ignore her, Martin tries to get her to calm down and Otakar makes empty pleasantries.

Director Jan Hrebejk deftly merges absurdity and heartache as he touches on racism, family problems, xenophobia, the inadequacy of the justice system and the Czech Republic's struggle to reinvent itself in some meaningful way (Vaclav Havel even has a momentary cameo).

All the performances are strong, but Vasaryova is the standout. In a sense, Vera is the very embodiment of the conflicted mess her country has made of itself. She's smart, funny and cares about social injustices. She's also bitter, needy, anti-immigrant and doesn't always act in her own best interest.

Pungent and spirited, "Up and Down" shows us a nation in transition that's not necessarily a nice place to live, but it's certainly worth a visit. Especially at the movies.