not completely compelling

Rating: 5/10 (2 December 2015)

It's 1961 at the height of the Cold War. The Soviets launches one of its first ballistic missile nuclear-powered submarine K-19 to test launch a missile from under the Arctic ice cap. Executive officer Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson) is concerned about the many problems with the new boat. Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) is the hard-charging new Commander. After finding the Reactor Officer drunk, Vostrikov replaces him with new graduate Vadim Radtchenko (Peter Sarsgaard). It's a series of mishaps and dangerous malfunctions that threatens the safety of the crew.
With a Soviet crew, it's a little harder to find the rooting interest. I never quite get to a point where I care about the outcome. It seems Neeson's character is too whiny. The accents get a bit annoying after awhile. Nevertheless, the story is quite fascinating. It's just not completely compelling to me.