I've watched it with my girlfriend, and I'm generally not that sure I liked it too much. The storyline is not bad, the acting is fine... but the schematic structure of the movie was too predictable, too obvious. So generally I'd say the movie but okay, but not exactly something to write home about :)

Did he do anything with his life? Well, part of the idea of the movie was exactly that he would do something, if he lived in a non-communist country; that his life was wasted in some way because of the communist regime (too widespread sentiment for some generations of Bulgarians). 

The emigration topic is somehow a sore topic here. The people who stayed during the transitional years (90s) feel like they have suffered through the hard times, and the Bulgarian emigrants abroad are a kind of traitors, because they chose to run away. The movie tries too hard to manipulate the audience that even if you leave, you <i>will not</i> accomplish something important abroad, because you have left your heart at <i>home</i>; otherwise I generally like it.