Pu-239 (2006)

In Russia, the technician and family man Timofey (Paddy Considine) is exposed to 1,000 REMS (Radiation Exposure Monitoring Systems) of radiation in the nuclear facility where he works. The facility director hides the level of exposure from Timofey and tries to force him to assume the blame for the accident and puts Timofey in unpaid leave.Aware that the exposure is lethal and feeling the sickness of radiation, Timofey steals 100 mg of plutonium and heads to Moscow expecting to sell it in the black market per US$ 30,000.00 to give to his wife Marina (Radha Mitchell) and his seven year-old son Tolya (Danya Baryshnikov). Meanwhile, the smalltime criminal Shiv (Oscar Isaac) and the gangsters Vlad (Jason Flemyng) and Yegor (Jordan Long) need to pay US$ 6,000.00 to the powerful mobster Starkov (Steven Berkoff) in 72 hours. When Shiv meets Timofey trying to sell the PU-239, he sees the chance to pay his debts and make some money. But he is incompetent and gets in trouble with powerful mobsters."PU-239" is a dark and depressive story about a family man that is exposed to lethal doses of radiation. His desperation with his situation leads him to try to raise money to improve the lives of his wife and his son selling plutonium that he has stolen from the nuclear plant. But his useless associate is unable to sell the good. The result is tragic and ironic, with a questionable black humor, in a weird combination of drama and comedy. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "PU-239"

From most of the prior comments the movie definitely has some positive elements about it including 100 grams of snort-able weapons grade Plutonium. Personally I expected little from a movie named after an atomic element but was surprised to find it a bit engrossing. Some found the dual story lines of the sickened nuclear factory worker and the Russian mobsters to be a bit too much. I found the narrative switches to be entertaining. With Timofey, the "glowing" and disgruntled plant worker, there is the heavy but poetic monologues of particles and light waves, a rather clever analogy of his crumbling life and his love for his family with basic nuclear physics. While most of the bungling Russian mafia characters and scenes were rather entertaining. Shiv, a fast talking bottom feeding street mobster, is a pathetic character that you almost can almost sympathize with. Shiv's attempt on teaching life's lessons to his young son while riding down a mall escalator was a funny nuance moment that starts with a Jesse James story and morphs into a confused connection with Jesse Jackson, Micheal Jackson, the Jackson 5, and finally Andrew Jackson. That somewhat hilarious scene itself is enough to lighten up the movie but then there also the comical street address confusion of "7" with "1" incident. Top that of with character Tusk's amusing little mafia business lecture to Shiv and his cohorts, which feels like a cheap late night infomercial testimony, and the movie could be considered a dark comedy with heavy elements...literally.

I didn't have high expectations here. It was on cable, and relatively unknown. This wasn't a great movie, but it was good. I thought the character development was done well, the acting was good, and the plot was well, er, OK. I guess this was based on a short story, so it must have been troubling to develop this into a full length (almost) feature film. We used the familyometer on this one. My wife gave it a pass within 5 minutes, but my daughter and I gave it a shot. She really liked it, I liked it, and it didn't grab my wife at all. There was a very funny scene which I won't give details on which involved a scene where a Russian was commenting on all things American. He made obscure connections between several recognizable names in our culture, and really did a hack job of it, but it was one of the lighter moments. The heavier moments were dark, and sad. I would recommend seeing it. If you make it past the first 10 minutes, you will probably enjoy it as I did.

This film filled my expectations; when i saw that kind of title i thought this movie was going to be different-and it was. A semi-foreign style to it, PU-239 try to tells us the story of this guy that gets radiation poisoning in this secret facility, with plutonium, and how it affects his relation to his family. The only thing i actually didn't like(because the movie tells some interesting facts about the chemical elements among other things and that's a plus to the movie) was the addition to a gang-like story to collide with this guy's(Timofey)search for justice and money to sustain his family due to being fired from the facility; it wasn't necessary that addition, i would've liked it better if it were more concentrated on Timofey. But overall is a must-see movie, not a great one but a worthy watching at home.