Plutonio 239 - Pericolo invisibile

AKA PU-239. A gem of a movie that deserves much more attention than (unfortunately) it's going to get. Honestly, I can't find any faults in this movie. OK, maybe, the mobster characters are a little bit over the top, but just a little, and it's a good thing. More entertaining. The script has obviously been written by someone who knows what he's talking about. Writing, acting, directing are all superb. It's the first intelligent "Russian" movie coming from Hollywood in ages. Too bad, not many people will see it due to the total lack of marketing from HBO. I got to watch it by accident while doing thoughtless channel flipping. Glad, I did.

I didn't have high expectations here. It was on cable, and relatively unknown. This wasn't a great movie, but it was good. I thought the character development was done well, the acting was good, and the plot was well, er, OK. I guess this was based on a short story, so it must have been troubling to develop this into a full length (almost) feature film. We used the familyometer on this one. My wife gave it a pass within 5 minutes, but my daughter and I gave it a shot. She really liked it, I liked it, and it didn't grab my wife at all. There was a very funny scene which I won't give details on which involved a scene where a Russian was commenting on all things American. He made obscure connections between several recognizable names in our culture, and really did a hack job of it, but it was one of the lighter moments. The heavier moments were dark, and sad. I would recommend seeing it. If you make it past the first 10 minutes, you will probably enjoy it as I did.

I don't know what it is this weekend, but I have tasted films from France (La Haine), Korea (Boksuneun naui geot), Canada (Eve and the Fire Horse), and now, Romania, albeit a US film. Three have revenge themes, two have multicultural themes, two deal with needed kidney transplants, and they all deal with family. There are many things in these films that make you want to think and think hard. Sure, there is also a lot of humor, but it never gets in the way of the themes.

Paddy Considine (The Bourne Ultimatum, Hot Fuzz) gets screwed big-time at work. He is exposed to 1000 rems of plutonium. He knows he only has days to live and his bosses are not interested in doing anything but covering their butts. Sound familiar? Anyway, he steals 100 grams of PU-236 to help his family.

At the same time, there are three low-level thugs who are also dying. They have 72 hours to pay off the big boss for their mistake. One of them, Shiv (Oscar Isaac) comes in contact with Timofey, and stumbles through a plan to solve both their problems.

A comedy of errors ensues with Shiv's partners, Jason Flemyng (The Red Violin, Transporter 2) and Jordan Long. These two are just about the dumbest thieves in the business and they get a fantastic high at the end that will have you rolling on the floor.

Comedy and tragedy mix well in Scott Z. Burns's (The Bourne Ultimatum, An Inconvenient Truth) film. It is a shame that it probably won't get a theatrical release.

And, it's a real treat to see Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill, Man on Fire).

I had great expectations for this movie. The story was promising and I thought that the great Paddy Considine as the protagonist would mean a compelling execution.

This is basically two different movies edited together. One part is great, the other not so much.

There are some great scenes in the first half of the movie. But the script is honestly a terrible mashup. It starts as a heartfelt dramatic depiction of a family cast into great troubles but then out of nowhere appears a bunch of thugs that even Guy Richie cut out for being too ridiculous. Considine together with parts of the cast are great, doing the best of the disjointed and sometimes plain stupid script. However, not even he can save this movie.

The writer/director very much would have needed a producer that could tell him to get his stuff together. Trying to combine drama and stupid dark comedy doesn't work unless the director is a genius. Scott Z Burns is not a genius.

Also, please lose the stupid "russian" accents.

I also came across this movie as I channel surfed. Didn't even know the name of it, but was fascinated by it's authenticity, being filmed behind the former Iron Curtain.

Russia has always been a paradox, in many ways a 3rd world nation, yet a military superpower. The themes it dealt with, the worthlessness of the individual, the carelessness of dealing with unbelievably dangerous substances in such an offhand way, the ass-covering behavior of bureaucrats, the stupidity of the Russian mafia, all are classic and well developed in the film. All are characteristic of Russia, yet this story could have happened anywhere. Really scares you to think that, given the bell curve of any group of humans, the nuclear genie is actually in the hands of such oafs.

Worth watching, worth talking and thinking about.