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Before director John Madden went on to direct the Oscar-winning SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, he directed mysteries for British TV. One of those series was PRIME SUSPECT, which starred Helen Mirren. Now the director and actress reunite to remake the Cold War-set Israeli thriller HA-HOV.

The story cuts between 1966 and 1997. In the 1960s, Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain, THE TREE OF LIFE), Stephan Gold (Marton Csokas, LORD OF THE RINGS) and David Peretz (Sam Worthington, AVATAR) are Mossad agents assigned the task of entering East Germany, kidnapping the Nazi war criminal Dr. Dieter “Butcher of Birkenau” Vogel (Jesper Christensen, QUANTUM OF SOLACE) and smuggling him to Israel in order for him to stand trial. The mission doesn’t go as planned and it has ramifications that last the rest of the agents’ lives. In 1997, Rachel (Mirren) has a daughter who has written a book about their exploits and she might get called back into duty for something she thought was over. Stephan (Tom Wilkinson, MICHAEL CLAYTON) is a high-ranking government official who can’t let secrets leak out. David (Ciaran Hinds, MUNICH) is a shell of his former self, obsessed with what happened in East Germany.

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Check Out the Trailer

Read my review of IN A BETTER WORLD

This Blu-ray looks amazing. Sony’s AVC encoded 1080p transfer is as flawless as you can get. The colors are vibrant and evocative. Toward the end of the film the picture takes on a warm glow, which is fitting in context. There isn’t a single digital anomaly due to compression anywhere to be seen. Details are crisp. Even dust kicked up by trucks in the African sequences have nuance. Beautiful is the most fitting way to describe the picture quality. Cinematographer Morten Søborg should be enthralled with the way his film looks.

The DTS High Definition Master Audio soundtrack creates a great ambiance for every scene. The packed African clinic. The roar of the warlord’s trucks entering the camp. A car explosion booms the LFE track. Directionality is used well across all the speakers. Dialogue is clear and the subtitles are easy to read. The soundtrack really matches the first rate picture quality.

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