Search - Trans-Siberian [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

George K. from COLCHESTER, CT
Reviewed on 7/1/2019...

I was first attracted to the cast and some good ratings, and the acting is competent.

But I tried four times to get myself to care what happened next. Finally, a bit over halfway through the movie, I just gave up.

Solid Casting and Characters but Weak Plot Derails this Tran

Doug Anderson | Miami Beach, Florida United States | 08/30/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This one grabbed my attention when I read about it in the New York Times last month. The article made it sound like it might rival Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train or Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. Well it doesn't. Not even close. Granted it does feature exotic Transsiberian locales from Beijing to Moscow, a train ride full of mystery and suspense, and the work of a set of top-notch actors. Unfortunately, everything that is attractive about this film is derailed by a script that takes one too many unlikely plot turns. So, instead of getting a suspense filled Strangers on a Train or an elegantly paced Murder on the Orient Express, we get just another Hostel or Turistas.

In the beginning there is the thrill that one is about to embark on an exotic journey into an area for the most part uncharted by Hollywood (Siberia), and the film does deliver a few glimpses of China and Russia that entice the eye. And, at first anyway, the characters and their relationships are intriguing enough to grab and hold our attention. Woody Harrelson is always good and here he delivers a fairly convincing performance as "Roy", a christian volunteer doing work with needy children in China. Roy is the typical bleary-eyed American optimist blissfully unaware of his own naivete. The fact that he wears Woodrow Wilson styled bifocals nicely underscores his limited vision of the world. This isn't Oscar stuff by any stretch but naivete is Woody's forte and since this character truly is caring and compassionate and sees only the best in other people he's actually quite likable. Since everyone else in this film is slightly jaded and gaurded and hiding a sketchy past, Roy's optimism and openness and childlike enthusiasm for trains is actually quite refreshing. His openness is at times an asset (he is a people magnet), at other times a liability (his naivete and over-the-top Americanness make him an easy target at home and abroad).

Accompanying Roy on this volunteer trip to China is his wife Jessie (played by the immensely talented and infinitely watchable Emily Mortimer whose previous film appearances include: Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl & Lovely and Amazing). Jessie is an odd match for Roy. She has experienced more of the world than he has and her adventurous, and perhaps dark, past is something that she keeps to herself. That is until Roy and Jessie board the Transsiberian Express and meet fellow travelers Carlos (Eduardo Noriega, best known for his work in the Spanish film Open Your Eyes) and Abby (Kate Mara). Carlos and Abby are seasoned travelers who look like they have seen a lot of the world, and not just the stuff that's in the Lonely Planet travel guide. Though well traveled, they are younger than Roy and Jessie and still full of wanderlust for the world and each other. Being around them reawakens Jessie's own still simmering wanderlust. Reckless and impulsive Carlos awakens her sense of danger and her sensuality (which have remained for the most part dormant during her time with Roy); and unrooted and uncertain Abby reminds her of her own younger and riskier, and as yet unmapped, self. Abby represents that side of herself that Jessie misses but also fears so she feels threatened by but also protective of Abby who is traveling down a lot of the same paths and traveling down them for many of the same reasons that Jessie formerly did. Abby's attraction to Carlos reminds Jessie of her own attractions to such men when she was that age and therefore she has conflicting feelings for Carlos: her younger self wants him, her older self wants him out of the picture. The fact that Jessie has a past and an understanding of many different types of existence makes her an excellent observer of human nature and as a result she takes wonderful pictures. But this avocation, like her relationship with Roy, is also a safe one. It allows her to indulge her interest in the disordered variety of life that she is attracted to but also to maintain a responsible and respectable distance from that world. However, her pictures also provide clues to an undeniable truth about Jessie. In the most memorable scene of the film a detective handles her camera and begins to scan through her photos while she nervously watches knowing the difference between culpability and liberty is only one delete button away. Mortimer does an exceptional job with the role. This character is full of surprises, including self-surprise, every step of the way.

The film could have worked well had it confined itself to developing the personal histories and tracing the evolving relationship dynamics and life trajectories of these four characters as they travel together in close quarters on an exotic train passing through one snowy Siberian locale after another. Instead, the film decides to take a different route and heads off into the usual Hollywood thriller terrain: drug smuggling, torture, murder, trainjacking & smashing etc... In other words, at about the halfway point, the film foregoes character study (and subtlety), and becomes your usual lurid, predictable, and forgettable summer flick."

Brad Anderson scores with this intense thriller!

Movie Man | 09/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this movie in Los Angeles and was plesently surprised. This movie had me glued to my seat until the credits rolled. Anderson clearly has created a mystery masterpiece telling the story of a clueless couple, Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer, stuck on a cross country train ride through the grim backdrop of a post-soviet Russia. The two are caught in a whirlwind of drug-smuggling, torture and crooked cops. I haven't been this impressed with a movie for a long time and can't wait to buy this sucker on DVD disc!"

A ride with menace and fear

Nikolai | VT | 12/17/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Don't worry: No spoilers. Transsiberian is an excellent thriller. A reviewer here aptly called it a neo-Hitchcockian film. A train ride in snowy Russia full of menace and suspense. As someone who has taken long train journeys in Russia, I can attest that the movie is quite good in transmitting their feel: from the vodka-lubricated friendly warmth of new acquaintances to the all too common hostile rudeness of train employees. And have no doubts about the suspense itself: the sense of dread and danger builds up gradually from almost nonexistent to just about unbearable. Emily Mortimer is superb as the central character. She has to exhibit a very wide range of emotions and she's absolutely convincing at all stages. Woody Harrelson is cast as Mortimer's husband. He is very credible as a friendly and rather naive Iowan who hasn't done much travel outside the US. He's also a train enthusiast--one of the reasons he's so thrilled about the Transsiberian. His wife is a woman with a wild past who turned her life around after meeting her husband, a committed Christian. They have to share their cabin with a young couple: Kate Mara, a young American, and Eduardo Noriega, a handsome Spaniard. Mortimer and Harrelson soon discover that their younger cabin mates are much better traveled than they are. Although they are friendly, Mortimer senses some mystery in the story of their companions. The last among the main characters is another train passenger, an English-speaking Russian narcotics detective played by Ben Kingsley. As it is often the case, Kingsley's character is both intelligent and intense. If you like suspense films, don't miss this one."