Hmm, I thought it was a pretty good submarine movie! Just a pity that after all the compelling build-up to their only chance of survival, the movie ends and is not quite resolved. And yes, it's true that the lead actress' talents were not shown at all.The relationship between the two actors were also not aptly fleshed out through the flashbacks. It also seemed like much of the crew was too cooperative, and the weak attempt to inject a black sheep only failed to add to the suspense when his attempts to disrupt the status quo were quelled by the other crew members.But overall, I was glued to my chair. A thumbs up. Just too bad for the ending.

The movie is excellent. It's quite difficult for a foreigner to understand and appreciate. What seems like a good joke to a Russian, may seem offensive or even "nationalistic" to foreigners. Examples are given by the previous (Turkish mind you) poster. "Hey Slavs" is an allusion to a very famous novel by Ilya Ilf and Evgeniy Petrov "12 chairs". Also the name of the submarine is "Slavianka" which gives the character the right to call his crew-mates "slavs". "You ain't Ukrainian, are you?" refers to the never-ending "psychological warfare" between Russians and Ukrainians meaning mostly mocking each other and telling harmless jokes.Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera... Like I said, it's absolutely impossible for a non-Russian to understand all this. Just like with Texans, you have to be born in Russia to be a Russian.The movie is great! The love story line is tense and intense. It is depicted through a series of well-made flashbacks which shows just what love of a true Russian navy officer means. And how much friendship means to him.It's a movie about love, friendship and courage. It's a movie about people who do their jobs protecting their country but don't brag about it or even feel they do something outstanding. The movie is filled with wonderful (untranslatable) jokes and fantastic sense of humor. All that played by the best Russian actors.Definitely 10/10!!

Some things I heard about this film before it was released was that it was "patriotic". Well I fail to see the patriotism. All I see is a submarine crew that dies at the bottom of the sea.It also does not help recruiting for the Submarine fleet. The whole movie makes it seem like a WW2 mine can bring down the whole Russian Navy. In fact those old magnetic mines would be ineffective today because of specialized hull construction.I don't understand what purpose does the film serve? Is it supposed to be in memory of the "Kursk"? One of the reasons given for the loss of that submarine was a mine.Something Russians don't need right now are Disaster films. You will never find a similar film in the US. Most US submarine movies like "Crimson Tide" and "U-571" involve triumph over an enemy, Hollywood would never even think about making a movie about a Submarine disaster involving their own submarines. 1st Channel should have made a Russian answer to "Crimson Tide", the usual "evil Russians" movie from Hollywood, not this movie.The Music and Special Effects were good, just the movie was bad.

I love this film because it doesn't try to make the regular drama -"everybody died" or"everybody happy" it shows something else. The bottom line of this film wasn't to save the crew from the submarine but to put the soul to the next level and if there is one person that you can save you have to save him.Maybe most of the people who saw the film ,saving this strange person- Makovetskiy(Chernenko) wasn't necessary for them but it was.Like Makovetskiy's character says in the film :"The world payed so little attention to me that I thought myself dead"and maybe because of this he was worth saving.By saving Chernenko they save their souls. Very good actors the best music by Ennio Morricone