A counter mockumercial.

A fantastic film from a first time director Scott Burns (who wrote the screenplay for Bourne Ultimatum). Its a taut thriller peppered with funny poignant moments and some great acting / great writing – a winning combination.

Film starts with an accident at a stealth nuclear plant in USSR. It starts very slow as we don’t know what to expect or where it goes. So first 25mins is meandering. Instead of dealing with the widespread calamity (think Chernobyl) of the nuclear plan situation, it deals with one man’s problems with it (Similar to M.Night’s Signs - where a worldwide alien infestation becomes one single person’s problem). His journey takes him to Moscow where he mets a street-smart crook, who has a similar Damocles sword hanging over his head. This is where the movie picks pace, as they both try to figure out a mutually beneficial outcome.

All principle characters are deep and well itched out – no cardboard characters here. Even tho it was a low budget film, it was gorgeously shot in East Europe with very authentic production design. The film crew passed themselves off as BBC TV crew to gain access to sensitive nuclear facilities in Russia! – I hope it doesn’t give similar ideas to Al Jazeera TV crew

Unfortunately, the movie did have a very short shelf life – it never made it to US theaters (no major stars) but it did debut in HBO as "PU-239".

4/5