Worth a look for historical reasons, but it's merely an OK film that is a bit of a chore to sit through at times

Rating: 5/10 (26 October 2015)

K-19: The Widowmaker is a story that is based on true events set during the Cold War Era. The Russians are carrying out a series of tests out in the Atlantic when their reactor ends up badly damaged which results in several crew members being badly exposed to radiation. As a result Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) and his crew must put everything they learnt into practice to prevent a catastrophic nuclear incident from occurring.
I knew very little about this film when I started watching it, but quickly became interested when I learnt that it was 38 years after the events had taken place that anyone was able to talk about what had happened - the fall of Communism was what allowed this story to be told.
The issue I had with this film is that it really only has three components to it; there's all the drills and training that we see (early on with Neeson and his crew) then later out at the sea with Ford in charge of the mission. Then there is the failure of the reactor and then we have the final sequence of events and the ending. Bigelow stages the action well and the various close ups, claustrophobia and obvious pain that we see from some of the men did help to at least keep me involved in what she's put in front of me. The problem I had with this film is that it was a tad repetitive - the drills and training kept me involved for about 30 minutes, but when you're seeing the same thing for about an hour it does start to get a bit boring. The second half focuses on the reactor breaking down and again it adds excitement and intensity, but again only in short bursts. If you have 120 minutes worth of film that only focuses on two things then you really need to make these two things compelling, exciting, intense and/or entertaining for at least the majority of the time. Sadly, K-19; The Widowmaker doesn't do this consistently enough making it a very much hit and miss affair.
There are some positives here and firstly it has to be said that Neeson and Ford were both very good here (even though their Russian accents were a bit dodgy): both men play-off well against each other and the power struggle that they face against each other make their scenes interesting to watch. Bigelow's direction is superb, the cinematography is excellent and the action sequences are framed together very well. The final sequence of events are also very moving.
K-19: The Widowmaker isn't a bad film, but it is a little repetitive and drawn out and for those reasons it isn't entirely successful across its 133 minute running time. It's worth a look for historical reasons, but it's far from being a great film.