Love Is a Carrot 3 (Любовь-морковь 3) is the third in the Love Is a Carrot trilogy, Russia’s own version of Freaky Friday. (“Love is a carrot” is a Russian phrase that, drawing on the silly-sounding rhyme between the words любовь, love, and морковь, carrot, dismisses love as something silly or cutesy. It’s often used to talk about romantic comedies and romantic problems. It can translate as “lovey-dovey.”)
Andrey and Marina are a married couple—by the third film, they have already been married for 15 years—who are constantly running into problems, which are solved by various body-switching antics. In the first film, they switch bodies with each other, staving off an impending divorce; in the second, they switch bodies with their adolescent children. The third film continues the trend. The tagline is “They’re not themselves again” (“Они снова не в себе!”).
Marina’s mother comes to visit, and soon after, Andrey’s father appears. (Fun fact: there are different Russian words for the wife’s mother-in-law/husband’s mother, свекровь, and the husband’s mother-in-law/mother’s mother, тёща—not that Russian is hard or anything…) Neither is particularly fond of their respective child-in-law. Just as the drama in the house is getting out of control, the family returns to Professor Kogan, a specialist in family problems who solves them by getting the family members to switch bodies. Marina and Andrey switch bodies with their parents, and hijinks ensue.
The film didn’t get great reviews or audience scores, just like the previous films in the series. A more positive reviewer did note that the actors dealt more successfully with the body-switching challenge than they had the last time around.
Director: Sergey Ginzburg (Сергей Гинзбург)
Stars: Kristina Obrakayte (Кристина Орбакайте), Gosha Kutsenko (Гоша Куценко), Liya Akhedzhakova (Лия Ахеджакова), Vladimir Menshov (Владимир Меньшов)
Production company: Fox International Productions, Real-Dakota
Box office take: $8.49 million
Official trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjXdnmlmqxA
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