Beauty in Trouble

“Pupendo and Up and Down director Jan Hrebejk thoughtfully ponders the effect of contemporary events on traditional Czech culture with this engrossing tale of the unlikely romance shared between a desperate young mother and a kindly, but much older, Czech expatriate. Effectively rendered destitute by the floods that washed through Prague in 2002, struggling young father and husband Jarda (Roman Luknár) eventually resorts to stripping stolen cars as a means of supporting his impoverished family. Jarda's wife Marcela (Ana Geislerová) is having difficulty accepting her husband's nefarious new career though, and before long she is packing her bags and rounding up the kids to seek shelter with her mother. Life at her mother's house isn't easy thanks to the constant presence of her mean-spirited step-father Richard (Jirí Schmitzer), but it simply seems as if there is no place left to go and Marcela's options have run dry. Meanwhile, ageing Czech émigré Benes (Josef Abrhám) is traveling to Prague from his home in Tuscany in order to claim a house that was previously claimed by the communists. When Benes and Marcela meet in a chance encounter and the benevolent older man clearly takes a liking to the beautiful young woman, the prospect of securing a stable future for her young children soon prompts the confused Marcela to consider leaving her beloved husband behind in order to make a permanent home with the elegant, but elderly foreigner.” (All Movie Guide)

“A vivid, nuanced and sweetly forgiving study in moral ambiguity.” (Ann Hornaday, Washington Post)

“Beauty in Trouble uses the changing moods of water as both metaphor and frame for the infinite adaptability of human emotions.” (Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times)