Late last year, my wife and I, together with my brother, took the Transsiberian Express (technically we were on one of the three main variants, the Transmanchurian) from Moscow to Beijing. I’ll have more to say about this later, but anyone who takes that trip would surely jump at the chance to view a thriller set on the train. So when I read in The New Yorker about Transsiberian, I longed to see it. If the 2008 film did eventually open in Australia, it was gone before I noticed it, so the video store was the place to keep watch. Last week my wife and I finally got to see it.
The essence of the story is classic: ‘trapped on a train.’ Religious American Roy (Woody Harrelson in an uncharacteristic, well-played role) and new bride Jessie (Emily Mortimer) decide to go the long way home from Beijing by taking the Transmanchurian Express. On board they strike a friendship with a dubious pair, American Abby (played hauntingly by Kate Mara) and Spanish charmer (Eduardo Noriega), and from there the mood darkens. Eventually careworn Russian narcotics detective (Ben Kingsley makes light of this unlikely casting; his accent when speaking English sounds fake but is exactly like our homestay host’s in Moscow!) boards the train.
The setting is as beguiling as I’d hoped: great lengthwise shots from above of the train piercing snow and snow-covered taiga forest; evocative scenes in this unique train’s dining car, four-bunk sleeping cabins, and carpeted corridors. There iseven a scene at the change of bogeys at the China-Russia border, something we didn’t witness on our trip. But, sad to say, the thriller itself is a fizzer. I hadn’t seen any of the previous films by director and co-writer Brad Anderson (but had read good reviews of The Machinist) and now will approach with caution, for he fluffs this big time. The overall plot is prosaic, tension leaks at every juncture, and the film gets silly before its damp squib ending.
Judgement: recommended, not as a thriller, which it is not, but as travelogue accompaniment to Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s Long Way Round.