Review of TransSiberian (2008) by Michael C — 30 Dec 2012

Directed and co-written by Brad Anderson (Session 9 (2001) and The Machinist (2004)), this is a taut thriller which has a touch of Hitchcock about it, (especially with trains), but it has a good cast, and while it has Euro-pudding written all over it, it's bouyed well by a good international cast, and it builds a good sense of fear and suspense, and it's well filmed and frozen landscapes have never looked so scary.

It begins in China, where American couple Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) catch the train from China to Russia after spending time working in a Christian mission in China. On the train, they meet Spaniard Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and his American girlfriend Abby (Kate Mara).

Jessie see's something odd about Carlos, and after stopping for sight seeing, Roy misses the train, leaving her alone with the couple. But, after an incident at a remote abandoned church, Jessie is reunited with Roy, but they're joined on the train by Russian narcotics agent Ilya Grinko (Ben Kingsley), who has a lot of questions for Roy and Jessie.

It's a good thriller, and it gets a lot of use from it's locations, (all done in Lithuania). It's got a good cast, with Harrelson showing a sensitive side, and Kingsley being a mysterious dark horse.

With all the wide open spaces around them, the film is unbelievably claustrophobic, and that works in it's favour.