Entertainment

It’s a jumble out there

‘A Room and a Half” fictionalizes the life of Russian-American poet Joseph Brodsky in an anecdotal jumble of scenes about growing up in penury in the USSR and returning there late in life.

Director Andrey Khrzhanovsky intermingles whimsical animated sequences with drab scenes of, for instance, young Brodsky contemplating the overcrowded spaces of Soviet living and trying to enjoy some quiet time with a date when the only thing separating his tiny living area from the main room of the apartment is a curtain.

Some sequences are lyrical, particularly a climactic encounter in which the poet asks his parents’ ghosts how they died, but repeated motifs do little to tie together the random memories, and the slow pace will test the patience of all but the most die-hard art-house habitues.