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5.0 out of 5 stars
Strangers on a train, August 11, 2008
This review is from: Transsiberian (Steelbook) (DVD)
A moody, dark tale of the perils of getting mixed up with the wrong people, TRANSSIBERIAN is the type of film that sucks you in immediately. It is an examination of the nature of fidelity, truth, and gullibility - with a healthy dose of don't-talk-to-strangers thrown in.
Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) have been in the Far East, where Jessie's prowess with a camera has won her honors in helping the plight of children in China. The couple decides to take the long Transsiberian train back to Moscow, eager to see more of the culture of the area. Roy, who back home is an important member of his church and a hardware store owner, as well as a train buff, comes off as highly likeable, sweet, and a little too innocent for his own good. Woody Harrelson plays this type of role well, and is good here. His wife, Jessie, is a rescued bad girl, struggling even now to settle down and not pine for her days of less-than-innocent. They board the train and find themselves co-cabined with a mysterious young couple who even at the outset Jessie is not sure are all that they seem.
Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara) are hinky from the start, jumpy, a little creepy; and Carlos shows immediate interest in Jessie, which Roy doesn't get and which makes Jessie nervous. Everything comes to a head when, at a station stop, Roy gets left behind. There is so much suggestion in this movie, you are not sure exactly what to think about the fact that he isn't on the train when it starts up again; and you are kept guessing about this and practically everything else throughout the movie. Jessie opts to stay at the next stop and wait for Roy to rejoin the train, and Carlos and Abby decide to stay with her, which doesn't exactly make her feel more secure.
The action grows darker and more grim from here, becoming a tangled web of deception, danger, and that impotent desperate feeling of being a foreigner in a place where the rules aren't clear. Everyone in the cast is spot-on; you really believe the fear and dread in Jessie when things transpire that she sees no way out of; you know Inspector Grinko (the always superb Sir Ben Kingsley, doing a great Russian accent here as a corrupt police official)is sizing things up with a glance. Roy slowly comes out of his cloud of sunny complacency to realize that there are things going on that perhaps a smile cannot fix, and that his wife is up to her neck in big problems.
I chanced upon this film, and was riveted from the first moment. You can feel the cold of the Siberian winter, and the helplessness of being a total stranger on a train full of native speakers who aren't always that interested in being polite or helpful. There was not a dull moment in the film, and the action was enhanced by a nuanced score that sends chills down your back at all the right times.
Although I felt the ending a bit contrived and really improbable, I would recommend this movie completely. Fast paced, intelligent, it will keep you guessing to the end.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't go off in the woods with strangers, August 14, 2008
This review is from: Transsiberian (Steelbook) (DVD)
A Christian couple decide to take the long train route home, through Siberia.
In the opening we see a Russian cop investigating a drug related crime.
Smuggling drugs by Americans in Russia makes it dangerous for tourists.
Russian police are not nice understanding people...?
And sometimes the innocent are the ones to watch out for?
Rape, murder and drugs makes for a bad combination.
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