Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a 2019 comedy film,
titled Son of a Rich. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
Grisha is the son of one of the richest men in Russia and acts as such. He's spoiled, incredibly
rude, and gets in constant trouble because he never gets consequences for his actions.
He doesn't do anything useful in his life, he just spends his days partying, drinking, and
using women. One night, after kicking out a girl he had promised a ride to because she wouldn't get
intimate with him, Grisha is stopped by the police for speeding. He tries to bribe Captain Semyonov
as he does with every cop he meets, but Semyonov won't accept the money. Grisha is still allergic
to consequences though, so he tries to drive away, and Semyonov gets in front of the car to stop him.
This doesn't stop Grisha, whose empathy is non-existent, and he keeps on driving with
Semyonov holding onto the hood of the car. Moments later, Grisha's dad Pavel goes to
the police station to pay the bail and release his son, who continues to be a spoiled brat
asking to be served even while locked in a cell. The chief reminds Pavel of all the destruction
Grisha has caused the past few months, including a yacht, and now he's sent a cop to the hospital
with grave injuries - the boy is simply out of control and Pavel seriously needs to do something.
After the bail gets paid, Pavel scolds Grisha for his behavior and threatens with cutting him off,
but Grisha doesn't care because he knows his dad is all bark and no bite.
Feeling incredibly stressed, Pavel visits his friend with benefits, TV producer Anastasiya,
to find some comfort in her presence. He doesn't know what to do with his son anymore, and he can't
even send him to the army because he already got him out of being recruited in the past. Anastasiya
gets an idea then: she knows a guy that she used to work with on horror movies that could help.
His methods are unconventional but very effective, and Pavel accepts to pay him a visit. They find
Lev Arnoldovich in his creepy house hanging from the ceiling with a rope around his neck, but it's
all fake: this is what he does best, developing devices and special effects to trick the eye.
After showing Pavel the method he used with a smoker client, which was pretending to cut
his finger off, Pavel freaks out a little and wants to leave, but Anastasiya convinces him
to at least hear Lev's plan for Grisha. Many days later, Grisha is coming out of a club when he sees
his car being towed, so he runs after the truck only to suddenly get shot and fall unconscious.
He wakes up hours later to find himself in a stable, wearing strange clothes,
and being told by stable boy Artyom that he needs to saddle the horses or their lord will get angry.
Grisha doesn't understand what is going on, especially when foreman Avdey Mikhalych comes
to drag him out and kick him while yelling at him for not following orders. At that moment,
the landowner Dmitriy Timofeev and his son Aleksey Timofeev show up and give Avdey a whip,
which he uses once on Grisha for not following orders. Dmitriy tells him to get the horse ready
now or he'll get a worse punishment, but when Artyom takes him back to the stable,
Grisha jumps through the window and runs away. He seems to be in a village in 1860s Russia,
before the abolition of serfdom. As he runs, Grisha asks people for help,
requesting a phone or even the police, but nobody knows what he's talking about. Eventually,
he makes it to the estate borders and accidentally falls into a lake, so when he comes back to the
village to get dry clothes, he's captured by Avdey and taken to be hanged for having run away.
Luckily for him, Dmitriy's daughter Aglaya shows up and asks her dad to have mercy on the
prisoners because she's tired of all the killing. Seeing as it is her birthday, Dmitriy agrees and
Grisha is allowed to live. A bird is flying above them, taking it all in before leaving to enter a
building near the edge of town. It's actually not a bird, it's a drone pretending to be one, because
this whole deal isn't time traveling, it is Lev's plan to teach Grisha some discipline and Pavel's
money allows for such an expensive production. Lev is in charge with the help of Anastasiya,
who uses her experience as a TV producer to keep the illusion going without any mistakes.
There are cameras hidden everywhere in town, even in the trees, and there's always a sniper
ready to shoot Grisha with a tranquilizer in case something goes wrong. After seeing the whipping of
his son is real, Pavel is starting to wonder if he's done the right thing, but Lev convinces him
this is for Grisha's own good. After seeing Lev and Anastasiya argue, Pavel can't help to wonder
what's the issue between them, and Lev explains that when Anastasiya said they worked on a horror
movie together she meant they used to be married. While Grisha spends some time alone in the stable
coming to terms with the fact he's traveled in time, the actors are given the scripts for
the next scene. The director reminds everyone of the rules: women shouldn't shave their legs, men
shouldn't shave their faces, and things like bras, underwear, earrings, and rings are forbidden.
Aleksey picks his script up after saying hello to his girlfriend, Liza who works is in charge
of the horses and not acting; he also makes fun of Aglaya for her contract. The writers want her to
be Grisha's love interest, which means she'll have to sleep with him, and that has Aleksey
wondering where the line between actress ends and harlot begins. Grisha starts living through an
awful routine in the village. He has to wake up before dawn, eat broth with only flies as meat,
work with horses he's scared of, use the forest as his bathroom, wear pants without underwear,
and get whipped every time he's disrespectful. One afternoon, Misha is taking a break from work when
he suddenly hears Aglaya crying, who explains to him that she's sad because her father wants her
to marry an old rich man. Instead of showing sympathy, Grisha thinks it's a great idea,
because if the man is so old then he'll die soon and Aglaya will get all the money.
Some days later, Grisha steals a chicken and asks Artyom to get him some tools to make a soup, which
Grisha ends up eating it all on his own instead of sharing it with Artyom, who did most of the
work. When Avdey discovers the chicken theft, he asks the culprit to confess or he'll whip someone
at random. Once again, Grisha fails to show any sympathy for another human being and watches how
Artyom is taken away for whipping without saying a word. Moments later, Artyom meets with Grisha and
shows him the scars on his back, courtesy of the make-up department. Grish continues not to care,
and while explaining Artyom why, he sees Liza jumping off a horse and notices that she wearing
modern underwear when her skirt accidentally gets stuck. This could mean something for his
situation, so he runs after her and throws her on the ground to try and see her panties again,
but luckily other villagers intervene and get him off her so she can run away.
Seeing as Grisha isn't making any progress, Pavel wants to shut down the whole operation,
but their discussion is interrupted by some big news: Grisha is looking for Liza to apologize.
The villager actors at first ignore him, since he isn't supposed to even know Liza, but Lev thinks
this a great opportunity to get some progress done and orders the actors to tell him where
she lives. Grisha apologizes to Liza, who has brought a wood stick with a nail just in case,
and Liza accepts the apology but promises to still be wary of him for a while. Some days later,
it's time to celebrate Ivan Kupala, a traditional holiday considered to be the most magical night
of the year. Legends say that whoever you spend the night celebrating with will spend their whole
lives with you. At the party, Grisha teaches the musicians how to play the Lambada and gets
the villagers to form a conga line, which Aglaya jumps into to tell Grisha that the prospect of an
arranged marriage is too much for her to handle so she'll walk into the lake tonight. Instead of
following her to stop her though, Grisha finds Liza and begins telling her stories about the
technology of the future after she takes pity on him and his loneliness and tells him she believes
him when he says he's a time traveler. Their chat is interrupted by Artyom, who after several failed
attempts to distract Grisha from Liz, mentions Aglaya has been seen near the lake. Grisha finally
puts two and two together and rushes to the lake to save her and take her back to the village.
However, when she comes onto him, he turns her down and goes searching for Liza instead.
She isn't at the party so he goes to her house, where all stagehands hurry to hide before she
opens the door. Grisha wants to spend the night in Liza's company to see if the legend will come true
for them, but Liza isn't interested and closes the door on his face. The next day, Lev decides Liza
will be Grisha's new love interest, so she becomes another actress on set. She doesn't like Grisha
very much and won't accept to kiss or sleep with him, but she does want to help make him a better
person, even if Aleksey isn't very happy with seeing his girlfriend get involved like this.
The production begins a new plot in the story. Aleksey is found drunk downtown, having caused
a lot of trouble and getting the sheriff hurt, thinking it was his right because he's a noble.
Instead of feeling disgusted by the entitlement though, Grisha gets jealous because he thinks
Aleksey had a very fun night out. His attitude changes however, when Dmitriy wants him to take
his son's place and get the punishment instead of him. At first, Grisha doesn't want to do it,
but Dmitriy offers him his freedom and good food in exchange, so he accepts.
This time he remembers to share the food with Artyom. Meanwhile, Anastasiya and Lev start to
get along again, and Pavel worries that they may get back together, but Lev finds this idea
laughable because Anastasiya obviously loves Pavel. This is shocking news for him since he's
always thought their thing was only carnal, and now he has some serious thinking to do.
Grisha is whipped two dozen times, but Pavel can't bring himself to watch it on the screen,
so he leaves the room. Anastasiya follows him and comforts him by proving how well Lev's plans work:
it was his finger cutting trick that helped her quit smoking. After the punishment is over,
Grisha goes to the landowner's house to ask for the papers that would grant him his freedom.
Dmitriy isn't around so it's Aleksey that receives him only to throw him on the floor, kick him and
spit on him while calling him an idiot for ever believing they would set him free for real.
Grisha stands and closes his fists, thinking about defending himself, but decides to leave the house
without a word, to Lev's disappointment. From then on, Grisha continues to work as a stable boy,
but he also starts spending more time with Liza and falling in love with her. One afternoon,
while they are taking a walk together, they see a bird flying in a very weird pattern:
it's a drone that has lost control. While the producers get the sniper ready in case it falls,
Liza tries to distract Grisha by telling him she's seen the bird since she was a kid and she believes
it to be her guardian angel. Thankfully, in the end, there's no need for the sniper:
the technicians regain control of the bird and get it out of there.
Meanwhile, Aleksey and Aglaya are both rather angry with how things are going.
Aglaya can't believe she's been replaced by Liza, and Aleksey doesn't like seeing his girlfriend
spend so much time with another man. The two of them end up making love inside a carriage and are
accidentally found by Grisha and Liza, who were passing by. Liza is extremely hurt by having her
boyfriend cheating on her, and Grisha thinks he's seen two siblings getting dirty with each other.
Because of this, Lev fires Aglaya and Aleksey. Liza's mood isn't very good since then, so to
cheer her up, Grisha decorates the stable with candles and makes a special diner for her, which
they eat together while sharing a fork. Afterward, they go stargazing, and Grisha admits that if he
was free, he would marry Liza. Remembering how he was tricked by the promise of his papers,
he confesses he did want to punch Aleksey and he didn't because when he looked at him,
he saw himself. Touched by how much he's grown, Liza kisses him. Meanwhile, in the real world,
Aglaya is on a famous talk show, telling the world about how Grisha has been kidnapped and
now is getting tortured for fun. The police appear on the news announcing an investigation, and when
Pavel sees this, he panics and wants to shut it all down before they arrive. Lev however, tells
him it's too soon and that they still have time to plan a final heroic act for Grisha to pull off.
Seeing as Grisha is dumb and doesn't catch on any anachronisms going on, they decide to send a
group of Mongols to invade the village. Grisha is spending time with Liza when she suddenly
tells him that if for some reason they get separated, she wants him to know that for her,
everything has been real. Artyom arrives then and tells them to quickly come back to the village
because the Mongols have attacked. Believing the story with no issues, Grisha thinks that they
should go the other way to avoid danger, so Artyom uses an excuse Lev feeds him through his hidden
microphone: the Mongols will burn the village if every worker isn't there. In the village, the
Mongols have been given a huge food offering, but their leader also wants a woman, so he chooses one
from the crowd. Her father immediately jumps in to defend her, and since Mongols respect bravery,
they allow him to duel one of their soldiers for her freedom. The father loses and gets
decapitated, but since he paid with his blood, this is enough to buy his daughter's freedom. So
the next woman the leader chooses is Liza, but no matter how much she cries out for Grisha's help,
he gets scared and goes away. Seeing the plan didn't work, Pavel is ready to shut it all down,
especially since the police are on his way, but Lev wants to wait a little longer because he
believes in him. When Grisha sees the bird drone fly above him, he takes it as a sign from Liza's
guardian angel and decides to do the right thing. He gets on a horse and, after grabbing Liza's old
stick, he rides back and hits the Mongols on the head before getting Liza on the horse with
him and riding away. Right after they leave, the police arrive on set. Since Grisha isn't around,
it's easy for Pavel, Anastasiya, and Lev to lie to them and simply tell them they're filming a movie,
which the officers believe, leaving without arresting anyone. Meanwhile, Grisha and Liza ride
past the estate limits and find a gas station, which greatly confuses Grisha. Liza is about
to explain everything to him but that's the moment the sniper chooses to strike and knock Grisha out.
He wakes later in the hospital, where Pavel tells him he's been three months in a coma after a car
accident and pretends not to know what Grisha is talking about when he asks about the village
and Liza. Grisha tries to go back to his old partying life, but it doesn't feel right anymore,
and even gifts his car to Captain Semyonov to compensate for what he did to him. One evening,
while in a club, Grisha finds Aleksey and Aglaya and tries to ask them about Liza, but they pretend
not to know him. Grisha apologizes for the confusion while looking incredibly defeated,
so the actors decide to take pity on him and give him some information. The following day, they take
Grisha to the ranch where the production rented the horses and Liza works at, and when he finally
sees her again, he asks her if what she had said is true and it truly had all been real for her.
When she confirms it, the couple kiss and begins a new relationship. Sometime later,
Grisha takes Liza as his plus one to his father's wedding to Anastasiya, where he thanks
him for having put him in this crazy project and making a better person out of him. From then on,
more spoiled rich brats are taken to the village often and Grisha helps with their rehabilitation.