Grade: B+

Verdict: Under the sea with two fine actors and a nail-biting crisis.

Details: Starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Rated PG-13 for disturbing images. At metro theaters. 2 hours, 15 minutes.

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Review: Part character study, part submarine thriller, "K-19: The Widowmaker" takes a long-hidden slice of Soviet history and turns it into a taut, sobering film. It's not as good as "Das Boot," my candidate for the best submarine movie ever made, but it does accomplish the same difficult task, i.e., getting us to identify with traditional American enemies — Nazis then, Communists here.

The picture is set in 1961, when the Cold War was turning red-hot. The Soviets are trying to play catch-up with the U.S.'s superior nuclear power. They rush a top-secret nuclear sub into duty, even after a test run proves pretty conclusively that the ship isn't ready. Captain Polenin (Liam Neeson) tells the Soviet brass that he won't risk his men. So they demote him to executive officer and replace him with the tough-minded Captain Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) who, it's whispered, has high-up connections as well as political ambitions.

Over a drink or 10 ten of vodka, Polenin pledges his loyalty to the new commander and encourages his crew to do the same. At first, the two men seem to get along. Both agree that the sub isn't really seaworthy and needs more time to get the kinks worked out. But when the party decrees that the sub be launched, tension builds between them. Vostrikov follows orders while Polenin aches to tell off the no-nothing authorities who don't mind risking the lives of his sailors.

Stir in a rookie assigned to handle the nuclear reactor, a freak accident that kills the ship's doctor, and a botched christening. (The champagne bottle refuses to break.) No wonder the crew gives the K-19 its spooky nickname, the Widowmaker. And that's just the beginning; they have no idea what's coming.

Director Kathryn Bigelow, who was once married to James Cameron and made the vampire cult classic "Near Dark," knows how to play with the Big Boys. She sends her camera careening down the sub's claustrophobic corridors. She makes us feel the crew's fear when Vostrikov insists on sending the sub so far down that the walls threaten to buckle. When Polenin protests, after two men are injured in the drill, Vostrikov coldly replies, "I drive them to the edge so they will know where it is."

The scene seems to be set for a mutiny, but the movie has more tricks up its sleeve than that. Its It's focus is on a kind of heroism and sacrifice that seems almost impossible.

Ford and Neeson may have on again/off again Russian accents, but they both understand their characters, what makes them click and what puts them at odds.

In a sense, Ford is playing James Cagney's martinet captain to Neeson's Henry Fonda in "Mister Roberts." Or Bogart's neurotic Captain Queeg to Neeson's more reasonable Van Johnson in "The Caine Mutiny." Keeping a chokehold choke-hold on his familiar charm, Ford is recessive and hard-to-peg. He can look as cold-eyed as Clint Eastwood in a poncho or as sternly capable as John Wayne at war.

By contrast, Neeson sets his charm at full throttle, playing supportive confidant confidante to the crew. The more Ford rides them, the more Neeson comes off as Fletcher Christian defying Captain Bligh, not just for personal gain, but for the greater good of the crew and the ship.

"K-19" doesn't go for pyrotechnics, though there are explosions and such. It sticks with the chilling fact that what happens to this one sub could precipitate a nuclear war. And it confronts us with the realities of those in peril on — or under — the sea. Much like the recent film about the ill-fated voyage of the Endurance in 1919 (there's even a group picture and an impromptu soccer game on an ice), "K-19" tells a remarkable story of survival and grace under pressure, both literally and figuratively.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service