The film revolves around a news reporter and cameraman who have a different experience when they are unintentional witnesses to the SCRAM accident. This appears to be a basic emergency shutdown at a California nuclear power plant. In those moments, a fatal mistake appears in the factory, as its owners are more interested in financing and public relations without looking at this.
All a bit too earnest, despite the seriousness of the subject, with Fonda setting her jaw and stepping into father's footsteps as Tinseltown's very own protector of humanity; but it's tightly scripted and directed, and genuinely tense in places.
What we must quarrel with is the heartless, devious, and appallingly manipulative manner in which the authors of the film have drawn their good-guys-and-bad-guys battlelines ...
The three stars are splendid, but maybe Miss Fonda is just a bit more than that. Her performance is not that of an actress in a star's role, but that of an actress creating a character that happens to be major within the film.
Los Angeles Alternative
March 25, 2006
Crackling drama about TV reporter (Jane Fonda) investigating a coverup at a faulty nuclear reactor, and pressing upon conflicted technician played by the first-rate Jack Lemmon to go public with the story.
Film4
March 27, 2009
The film is one of those rare modern thrillers that manages to combine fantastic acting and intelligent dialogue with real, heart-stopping suspense.
