Spoiled Millionaire Suddenly Wakes up in a 19th Century Village Believing he Traveled Through Time

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.