What’s your favorite color? If it’s a shade of red, bravo! Stick it in the title of your next submarine flick, and you’ve won half the battle. “K-19: The Widowmaker,” based on the Red Army’s naval fleet of 1961, missed that boat. Don’t worry. More boats are on the way…
It’s time for Harrison Ford to save the world again. It’s been five whole years since “Air Force One” crashed into the ocean. He’s back in the water, but this time he’s on the other side. Ford plays Alexi Vostrikov, captain of K-19, the first Soviet sub to carry a nuclear reactor. He replaces Captain Mikhail Polenin, (Liam Neeson, “Star Wars: Episode I”), who stays aboard as Ford’s right-hand man for K’s maiden missile test in the North Atlantic.
Kathryn Bigelow (“Point Break”) directs this $80 million ride, which throws up a red flag from the very get go. Fifty English-speaking actors, all speaking English, but with Russian accents. An Anglo-Russian blend of dialect sets in, placing the film in an odd never-never land.
Like a Russian novel, the characters undergo a lengthy introduction. It’s really just Capt. Vostrikov (Ford) pacing around inside the sub, then outside, then inside, then outside again — but with a furrier hat. He’s always treating his men like expendable machines, which they are. This goes on for the first twenty-five minutes. Polenin, a nurturer, is visibly unnerved by Vostrikov’s harsh treatment of the men, but a few grim looks is all Polenin can muster.
Hitchcock would have been proud of all the bombs Bigelow slips under the table to begin the second act: continual doubt of Vostrikov by the heads of the Soviet Navy, a champagne bottle that won’t break, and a reactor meter that’s on the blink. Disaster is imminent when K-19 leaves port. The ship’s nickname is even a curse: The Widowmaker.
Where are Ford and Neeson? They’ve gone silent. More pacing and jibber-jabber in Anglo-Russian. A nice surprise occurs when Vostrikov orders the brand new sub to slam through the North Atlantic ice. He’s a bit wacko, but he always keeps it to himself. The missile is fired successfully, but not long after, the reactor malfunctions.
Vostrikov shoots down Polenin’s suggestions to seek American help, which would be easy since they already speak the same language. The ship turns to Radtchenko, the frightened reactor officer, played genuinely by Peter Sarsgaard (“Boys Don’t Cry”).
Unfortunately, a reactor leak is a bit too much for any one man to handle. K-19 sits idle and contaminated, turning down numerous American rescue attempts. It takes awhile…and awhile, but eventually Vostrikov decides to abandon ship by hopping on the Soviet sub in the next lane.
Nearly as long as “Titanic,” but without a love story or impressive visual elements, “K-19: The Widowmaker” is a tugboat. Ford spits out the fatalistic lines as K pushes off, “We deliver, or we drown.” This film could use a lifesaver…red, if possible.
Grade: C
