Review of Night Train to Lisbon (2013) by Thomas W — 26 Mar 2014

This is supposed to be the very type of movie that I love -- arthouse drama based on a best selling novel with an international setting and a highly respectable cast from a director of an Oscar-winning foreign film.

Night Train to Lisbon has an excellent pedigree but none of it adds up to anything worthy of recommendation ... which is a shame. Although there is some nice photography on hand and the cast is all decent, the film is boring and it unfolds in a plodding, formulaic manner.

After stopping a young woman from jumping off of a bridge, Raimund (Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune) follows her to a train station to return her coat to her and a book he found in one of its pockets.

Boarding the same train he believes she has boarded (all for a coat), Raimund finds himself headed to Lisbon although there is no trace of her on the train. While onboard, Raimund begins to read the book .

.. and he finds himself enthralled in the story it contains which leads him to track down those linked to its late author (Jack Huston - "Boardwalk Empire"). As secrets and mysteries relating to a dark period of Portugal's past are revealed through interviews and flashbacks, Raimund's infatuation with the text keeps him in Lisbon longer than anticipated.

Tom Courtenay (Quartet), Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds), Bruno Ganz (Downfall) and Lena Olin (Chocolat) co-star as bit-players in the unfolding mystery. There is supposedly a mystery here; but I didn't really care much for it.

I was wanting another Mysteries of Lisbon with this one but I found this one to be nowhere near as interesting.