Transsiberian (DVD, 2008)

The idea for this film set in freezing Siberia on a train is absolutely breath-taking, especially along remote areas between China and Moscow through Siberia. Voilà is a real Transsiberian railway built by Nicholas before the revolution.

The film really gets underway when two couples have to share accommodations in a passenger compartment on a train. Although they seem to be very different and are a bit shy to begin with, Roy (Woody Harrelson), his wife Jessie (Emily Mortimer), Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara) are thrown together in this tight, old fashioned thriller. This is the new Russia of big money and mafia corruption, but the ingredients are tried and true. Strangers on train: there's something Hitchcockian about the way innocent people get roped into incriminating situations and then appear perhaps not to be so innocent after all.

The long train ride and the overheated intensity of the cars (you can't seem to pry the windows open) make it very claustrophobic and uncomfortable. The character all seem way to naive and trusting at times, yet very drawn in to one another in a sexual, yet suspicious way. Roy seems to be very gullible at times, maybe a bit pious, yet upbeat. Roy seems very interested in living life and has nothing to hide, yet you feel that his wife Jessie may have had a very wild past with many problems including trouble with the law. She's a smoker, and he's a christian trying to come to grips with his wife's difficult outlook on things and her inability to be sexy and romantic.

Roy and Jessie seem to be returning from some sort of Christian outreach project in China. Roy's like a little boy when it comes to trains. The Express is like a huge toy all for him. He's very devoted to Jessie, but the sex hasn't been going too well.

The next day into the compartment comes a younger couple. Carlos and Abby say they were teaching in Japan. However, Carlos, a handsome devil, who has his eye on Jessie, seems to know a little too much about how to get past customs with a dodgy passport. He shows off theirs proudly to Jessie, who's had a bit of trouble with the Russians. Her passport and Roy's are too pristine, he says. It makes the officials suspicious. His and Abby's are packed with stamps. They look "real." He's got some of those Russian dolls, the little lacquered things like shoots only with babushka heads, one inside the other. He says his are special, and he's going to sell them for a lot of money. He is, but that isn't why.

The train makes long stops, and Roy is so fascinated with the cars, he gets involved in a conversation with Carlos, and then the train takes off without him. Abby and Jessie have had a heart-to-heart and Jessie has confessed she had a lot of drug and alcohol problems. Roy says they "met by accident" because they met in an accident, when she was driving drunk and he stayed with her in the hospital. That's when he told her the donut and the hole story.

Carlos is dangerous, handsome, and predatory. Jessie has that wild side gesturing wildly to be let out again. And he could be the one to tease it out.
Depends on how good you are at predicting the outcome of this story. If I tell you the outcome you would watch the film. So Just watch it and I will guarantee you the story takes many twists and turns.

I'll give this film a 4/5 for its wonderful scenery and intense moments of terror and betrayal.

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This 2008 movie will not allow you to sit during the entire trip! You will be glued to the tube--no bathroom stops, no intermissions, no drink or popcorn stops.

Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) are American missionaries in Beijing as the movie begins and are being honored for their work there. To return home, Roy's interest in trains causes them to take the Transsiberian train from Beijing to Moscow. So we as fellow passengers get to see the primitive but tolerable conditions on the Russian train. An interesting sideline is that when they cross the Russian border, the wheels of the train have to be modified to accommodate the Russian train tracks, which are wider than the Chinese because of mutual distrust and border conflicts.

Once across the border, Jessie and Roy must share their tiny compartment with Carlos (Eduardo Noriega)and Abby (Kate Mara). As the movie progresses, we learn that Jessie met Roy through a traffic accident, that Jessie had a rather wild teenage lifestyle before Roy, and that now they are having some marital conflicts. Carlos and Abby become friends with Roy and Jessie. Carlos takes a real interest in Jessie, and we are growing suspicious. When the train stops at Irutsk, they all depart for a breath of fresh air. Roy is treated to looking at a bunch of old trains. Abby and Jessie bond as they discuss their mutual wild pasts. Carlos sticks with Roy, but then leaves him as he becomes so focused on the old trains.

From here, I will only tell you that Roy misses boarding the train, leaving Jessie at the mercy of Carlos and Abby. Also, I will hint that Ben Kingsley as Grinko, a brutal Russian narcotics agent, will soon make an appearance.

This movie was nominated for many awards including the Poe Award and some science fiction awards--but no Academy Awards. It is my belief that it wasn't marketed properly, as the quality is there yet I have never heard of it. My son's and my mutual interest in Russian history caused him to give it to me as a Father's Day gift.

This movie is also a cinematic treat as the train moves through the Siberian land. Talk of gulags (Russian prisons) and passenger mistrust also add to the suspense. It has a similar theme to "Midnight Express," the tale of an innocent American caught up in a drug smuggling incident and winding up in a Turkish prison.

This movie is well worth your time!

nice train flick. something different.If you go along with the plot you will find it interesting. Love the snow and the feeling when watching the train ride.

JUST A TOP-NOTCH FILM. EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH THIS FILM KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING, RARE FOR A PRODUCT OF THIS QUALITY TO HAVE MADE IT TO THE SCREEN. I TAKE IT BACK....THEY DO STILL MAKE GOOD MOVIES."

If you're a train buff like me and have done the trip, there is much to enjoy. But as a suspense movie, it is too predictable to bother to view