Siberia
review by Bobby Blakey
I have been a fan of Keanu Reeves since the Bill & Ted days and was so happy to see his resurgence with a vengeance in the John Wick series. Outside of the highly anticipated John Wick 3 he has a few movies coming out with one being his latest Siberia co-starring Ana Ularu, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, and Molly Ringwald from director Matthew Ross, but does offer up a great the makings of a great thriller or will it fail to make the deal?
Siberia follows an American diamond merchant who travels to Russia to sell rare blue diamonds of questionable origin. As the deal begins to collapse he falls into an obsessive relationship with a Russian cafe owner in a small Siberian town. As their passion builds, so does the treacherous world of the diamond trade from which he is unable to extricate himself. Both collide as the American man desperately looks for escape in a world with no exit. Going into this film I knew nothing about it and it felt like it might be an interesting thriller with numerous twists and turns. While it is a good movie it is not the movie I thought it was going to be. Instead of a crime thriller that it initially seems like it is going to be that story arc plays second to the more romantic thriller aspect.
The majority of the story follows both the missing case of Reeves business partner dis appearing and his new obsession with a waitress he meets. Their relationship takes front and center as he has to deal with those opposed, his own personal life and the crime world he is dealing with. Reeves is really good here bringing a more subtle persona to the role that you believe in everything he deals with. The rest of the cast are fine as well with Ringwald quite literally phoning it in as she is relegated to mostly Skype type exchanges, but it was still great seeing her here. The romantic story arc is compelling at times, but not overly exciting. There are some scenes that could have sent it into the erotic thriller category, but I felt it toned it down just enough from falling into that hole.
The story finds its way back around to the crime aspect of it and manages to offer up a pretty good ending of it all, but as a whole never fully finds its place. This is one of those movies that offers up a slow pace and great performances, but not one that will work for everyone. The overall reveal is nothing overly exciting and the action at the end ,although decent enough is pretty average it still managed to be a compelling film that might work for some.
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​Decide for yourself and check out Siberia when it hits theaters and On Demand / Digital HD on July 13, 2018 from Saban Films.