Maryana Spivak appears in a scene from "Loveless."

“Loveless,” the Best Foreign Film from Russia now getting its theatrical release in the United States, is not an easy watch. The story of a fractured marriage and its effects on the couple’s young child provides an honest, yet brutal look at divorce – against the backdrop of two adults more consumed with their own happiness than anyone else around them.

Director and co-writer Andrey Zvyagintsev sets the stage in the opening scenes as we watch Boris (Aleksey Rozin) and Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) in the final stages of a brutal divorce. Both have already moved on to new lovers, but neither want to raise their 10-year-old son Aloysha (Matvey Novikov). 

When Aloysha overhears the couple arguing over where their son will go, Aloysha decides to run away – an act that takes the couple a day to realize.

From there the film becomes a balance between a procedural – with the police trying to find the missing boy – and a portrait of two people focused on a better life for themselves, but in a manner so selfish that they don’t care who they hurt along the way to that happiness.

Rozin and Spivak are both very good eliciting the emptiness of these two characters, while Zvyagintsev uses the story to comment on the Russian middle class and how hollow and empty their dreams of a better life tend to be. At times “Loveless” might feel cold and distant to audiences, but the mood fits the story. It’s a haunting experience that will linger with the audience long after the closing credits.

Starring: Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rozin

Directed by: Andrey Zvyagintsev

Rating: R for strong sexuality, graphic nudity, language and a brief disturbing image

Playing at: Belcourt Theater in Nashville

Grade: B