I just watched Advokatas (The Lawyer) with English subtitles throughout. This is important as I would have had to have given up if solely the Lithuanian parts were subbed. The story was fine, but the actors were grim, mainly because they were not particularly fluent in English (90% of the film was in English) and it looked as if they had learnt their lines parrot fashion. There was very little expressiveness or emphasis where you would expect it. I'm not sure some of them knew exactly what the meaning of the words they were saying actually was, in particular the lady artist who was getting a divorce and who really was the pits.
There were a couple of sub-plots that I was not sure about. Why were they there? The trans angle and then the dropping of the court case and then the divorce. Digressions are fine, as long as they mesh somehow with the main theme.
The Syrian refugee expressed some overtly political views that were propaganda straight from the terrorist groups that attacked Syria. I found this distasteful, especially as he emphasised at one point that there were gay clubs and cafes in Syria before she was attacked, something I can testify to the truth of from my time there. There was tolerance and relative freedom, but he launched into a diatribe against President al Assad who'd presided over this liberal atmosphere. I found it very odd and not justified.
For the ending, you have to suspend your critical facilities. In real life their scam wouldn't have worked. However, in view of what had come before with the official agencies and the time constraints of "The Lawyer" to get back to his job, the film had to end somehow. At least this way brought a wry smile.
I honestly can't give this more than a four but have to say I watched all the way through and wasn't really bored at all. The main plot held my attention. It was just the dialogue and the way it was spoken that was the problem.
