The ice breaker

Language : Russian

 

Year of release : 2016

 

Run time : 1h59min

 

Genre : Drama / Action

 

Cast : Pyotr Fyodorov

 

 

The action takes place in 1985,and centers around an icebreaker under difficult circumstances.

 

The movie starts right off the bat with the ship encountering an iceberg which shifts, changing position,the unseen,much bigger, part in the water surfacing, crashing into the ship.

Being on deck, a member of the crew falls in the water, right after his dog does.

 

The captain makes the decision of saving him,which puts him at odds with a guy who seems to be looking for faults just so he could take his place.

 

A member of the crew even says to the said guy right before the incident that he was told a captain should not make friends with his sailors,but be feared by them,as this captain,Andrei Petrov, was helping them all,being friends with them.

His wish comes true,as the wannabe reports the captain,and he is demoted for trying to rescue his crew member,putting at risk the lives of the other 70 sailors,and the new captain is an arsehole .Not only he is not friends with anyone,but doesn't want to make friends. He is rude and mean to all. In his first encounter with one of the crew members he takes his Rubik's cube and throws it in the water !

 

They have orders to shut down waiting to be rescued,and while doing so,have nothing to do,because they can't even use the electricity. So they play the guitar and sing. The new captain sees them singing,gets their guitar and smashes it,because this is no time to be upbeat,and besides, he doesn't need friends,he's there to do his job.

 

Throughout the movie the former captain is referred to by his last names Nikolaievich and Petrov,and that confused me for half of the movie,as I thought they were talking about 2 different people.

 

There are scenes with 2 wives of the captains,and to be honest,I didn't care for them,for the most part I didn't even know who's wife was the pregnant one,and why was she in the movie.. personally I think the movie could have done without them,as taken out,it would have made no difference. It also felt like it belonged to 2 different movies.

 

The acting was good,so were the visuals, I loved the fur hats Andrei Petrov and his wife wore,and the dog.

 

I first watched a version with subtitles which works better,as the subbed YouTube version doesn't grab the intensity of the stressful,hard moments,due to the interpreters who seem bored or with their mouth full.

 

The link to the YouTube full dubbed movie here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1KBhw7ln5s

 

Rating : Could have been a contender !