A naïve American getting caught up in the dangerous interplay of Russian gangsters and FSB could be an extremely topical story, but “Siberia” is actually a surprisingly old-school thriller, the kind of meat and potatoes genre movie that could have been made with few changes forty or more years ago, for better or worse. It’s a thriller that relies more on the threat of violence than actual violence, powered by the menace of an insular small town and unknown foreign customs, and tells an unadorned story of one man’s descent, just as a tryst had offered new possibilities.
Keanu Reeves plays American diamond trader Lucas Hill, though you might forget that since he’s exclusively called ‘the American’ throughout the film. In Russia to facilitate a sale of valuable blue diamonds, Hill learns that his friend Pyotr has vanished with the diamonds and unless he finds them, he risks the wrath of gangster Boris Volkov (Pasha D. Lychnikoff), a man no less terrifying for his constant declarations of friendship. Seeking Pyotr, Hill travels to a remote Siberian village, where he meets café owner Katya (Ana Ularu) after an ill-fated attempt to defend her honor leaves him in a heap in the parking lot. Katya is a brazen and no-nonsense woman. The next day, after an early morning visit from her watchful brother, she tells him that everyone in the town thinks they slept together so they might as well do it. As Hill continues his search for the diamonds, the two embark on an affair, undaunted by obstacles on both sides; he has a wife at home (briefly played via Skype by Molly Ringwald), and she is being pressured by family to marry a local man. Reeves isn’t really known for his romantic roles, but here the romance far exceeds the thriller elements, with a strong chemistry between the world-weary Reeves and the fierce Ularu.
Eventually, Hill returns to St. Petersburg, and Katya follows him to a meeting with Volkov, who sexually humiliates her in a difficult-to-watch scene. As with many onscreen acts of violence against women, this scene could be deemed gratuitous, or an appropriately dark portrayal of Russian mobsters. Either way, she pays the price for his actions and it feels perverse that the earlier demonstrations of her strength are the prelude to this treatment, whether one considers that cruelty or tragic irony. Although the nascent couple somehow survives this episode, Hill is forced into even greater danger when the FSB forces him to sell Volkov counterfeit diamonds, an act both parties know is his death warrant, but he agrees anyway in the face of threats to Katya.
The performances and the direction from sophomore director Matthew Ross are stronger than the script, which is pretty fuzzy on all plot details other than Keanu needing diamonds. While in some ways it’s refreshing not to give the protagonist an overly deterministic backstory, Hill’s prior life is such a cipher that it’s hard to gauge the import of what’s happening to him, if it’s a major deviation from his regular life or just another “business” trip. Additionally, the film’s refusal to cast moral judgment on Hill, allowing him excuses, even as his choices result in great harm, render the action thematically toothless. While the idea of seeing something actually shot in the vast and mostly unknown Siberia is enticing, the majority was shot in Manitoba and the depiction of the region’s culture doesn’t extend far past heavy coats and heavier drinking. Yet despite these drawbacks, Reeves’ downbeat charisma is the perfect fit to the story, and his battered presence, along with the energy of Ana Ularu, gives the film’s romance a much stronger pulse than the crime elements.
There’s nothing particularly special about “Siberia,” but with a winning Keanu Reeves performance, it maintains enough moment-to-moment suspense that it just might be enough to satisfy moviegoers yearning for a throwback genre film. [C+]