SIBERIA – Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

For all the perceived masculinity surrounding the myth that is Keanu Reeves, there’s something immensely tender about his screen presence. He’s got a stone face, but hiding behind it is the melodramatic soul of a Shakespeare protagonist. He attacks drama like he’s ripping his heart out and screaming into the heavens how much that he loves. This feeling is present in all of his work, action or not. You might see the same man in My Own Private Idaho as you do in John Wick, but at least that man has a soul. At least, you can empathize with him.

Siberia, a new drama starring Reeves is acidic through and through. It’s about a cold man in a cold world, in a situation that is built to drain him of love. As a plot, it starts off simple enough with Reeve’s Lucas Hill organizing the sale of diamonds and befriending a young woman named Katya (a commanding Ana Ularu) but soon descends into a sickening mixture of interactions all leading to a final, defeating, ending.

Siberia is the type of movie that would be released wide during the mid to late 90’s, but in this day and age, might be left to digital platforms. Seeing as it does seem like a 90’s movie, there is a sense of toxic machismo hanging over the entire thing. The movie is lucky, though. Due to the very charisma of Keanu Reeves that sickening taste doesn’t appear often. Reeves is REALLY good at the stuff he’s doing here: being in love, shooting people, and acting like the most bereaved guy in the world, and he grounds the entire production with his performance. You can’t help but empathize with a man who looks so kind most of the time. Siberia also tends to place him in situations that feel partially subversive of the more masculine aspects of Reeves’ character, with the plot often throwing him and his cohorts into situations so unlucky that it would take only a good man to escape.

The film does stumble over this sometimes though. As events expand, Katya’s character becomes less of a character and more of a prop. She’s allowed her own emotions in the slow burn first act of the film but soon finds herself relegated to the role of just another character lacking agency of her own. That’s not too big of a problem, as most of the good guys don’t have much agency within the plot (just part of the point), but there’s an especially terrible scene near the end of the movie, that feels exploitative and badly put together, that reduces her to being just another piece of meat.

That becomes slightly unforgivable as the film goes on and gets nastier and nastier, (there’s a sense it’s trying too hard to make you uncomfortable), but the resounding, very dark ending eventually gives way to the films intention of crafting an experience that no person gets out of unscathed. It’s the perfect ending for this movie.

The direction of the film also skews competent which helps sell the ludicrous premise and somewhat hamfisted script. Siberia is primarily a character piece and director Matthew Ross makes sure to craft it like one. He exposes a melodramatic verve that keeps the film arresting, even when the plot slows down.

Siberia really isn’t a great movie, but it is well made and survives on the charisma of its leading man. It works well to his strengths and even lets him fire off a couple of rifle rounds, which is all it needed to do. It’s not particularly great, not particularly terrible, just pretty good. This seems like a year of pretty good movies for Reeves, with Destination Wedding coming up soon.

3 out of 5 Stars

Saban Films will release  SIBERIA in theaters and On Demand / Digital HD on July 13, 2018.