The Half Life of Timofey Berezin

In Russia, the technician and family man Timofey (Paddy Considine) is exposed to 1,000 REMS (Radiation Exposure Monitoring Systems) of radiation in the nuclear facility where he works. The facility director hides the level of exposure from Timofey and tries to force him to assume the blame for the accident and puts Timofey in unpaid leave.

Aware that the exposure is lethal and feeling the sickness of radiation, Timofey steals 100 mg of plutonium and heads to Moscow expecting to sell it in the black market per US$ 30,000.00 to give to his wife Marina (Radha Mitchell) and his seven year-old son Tolya (Danya Baryshnikov).

Meanwhile, the smalltime criminal Shiv (Oscar Isaac) and the gangsters Vlad (Jason Flemyng) and Yegor (Jordan Long) need to pay US$ 6,000.00 to the powerful mobster Starkov (Steven Berkoff) in 72 hours. When Shiv meets Timofey trying to sell the PU-239, he sees the chance to pay his debts and make some money. But he is incompetent and gets in trouble with powerful mobsters.

"PU-239" is a dark and depressive story about a family man that is exposed to lethal doses of radiation. His desperation with his situation leads him to try to raise money to improve the lives of his wife and his son selling plutonium that he has stolen from the nuclear plant. But his useless associate is unable to sell the good. The result is tragic and ironic, with a questionable black humor, in a weird combination of drama and comedy. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "PU-239"

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.

This is what Indie films are all about. An excellent flick, acting, plot, script, and all else very well done. On HBO this movie is billed as PU-239 so keep an eye out for it, but be careful what you inhale while watching it!

Having been a physics major I can state that as far as the science goes the movie is loyal. Science, however, is just background. This movie is really about the human spirit continually battling against despair; the human condition and the lengths we will go to kill one another and to love one another; human ignorance and human intelligence, but without humility, and the trouble it will get us all into; and "in the end, everything decays into lead", like bullets, and the fact that no one gets out alive.

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.

This movie was OK. It was not quite great, but interesting enough to be a bit above average. It starts out great, but then settles into a kind of blandness for the rest of the film.

Basically, the movie is about a man who is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation in a nuclear power plant in Russia. Knowing he is going to die soon, he absconds with a small amount of plutonium and attempts to sell it on the black market ... all to help provide for his family.

If the plot sounds interesting, the movie somehow drains the intensity out of it. The middle 90% of the movie is basically uneventful and focused on a slightly deranged mob-related fellow that the main character meets. More than anything, the movie depicts the degenerating state of affairs of two very different individuals who get linked up.

The movie is somewhat interesting and unusual, but I can't find a good reason to recommend it. If you end up watching it for a little while, just keep in mind, it won't get any better.