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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Church-going Emily Mortimer and Woody Harrelson are wending their way back home on the Trans-Siberian Express from a do-gooding trip in China, when along comes shady backpacker Eduardo Noriega to upset the proverbial apple-cart, with his menacing (and slightly frayed) good looks and a bag full of matryoshka dolls... From Brad `The Machinist' Anderson, this is a great-looking film with some standout touches: a few stylish shocks in the manner of Hitchcock's `The Birds', and a general attention to `mise en scene', with a gorgeous shot of snow falling on Emily Mortimer's face and some beautiful location footage.
Complex and morally ambiguous, `Transsiberian' is a superior thriller with stellar performances from all its leads. It starts out, perhaps, promising something even more complex that it ultimately fails to deliver, but, for all that, the film is superbly paced and cleverly scripted, and peopled with the sort of believable, three-dimensional characters not often found in the thriller genre. Recommended.
Complex and morally ambiguous, `Transsiberian' is a superior thriller with stellar performances from all its leads. It starts out, perhaps, promising something even more complex that it ultimately fails to deliver, but, for all that, the film is superbly paced and cleverly scripted, and peopled with the sort of believable, three-dimensional characters not often found in the thriller genre. Recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Without an attenion-grabbing above-and-beyond the call of duty performance like Christian Bale's anorexic turn in his previous film The Machinist to distract the attention, Brad Anderson's attraction to rather thin stories is rather more noticeable in the first half TransSiberian. Although an opening scene with Ben Kingsley - sorry, SIR Ben Kingsley's Russian cop finding the frozen body of a drug dealer on board a ship tips us off that dark deeds are ahead, much of the first third plays like one of those occasional rather slight indies about long railway journeys and the cultural and emotional paths that cross on them, with railway buff Woody Harrelson (rather overdoing the enthusiasm as a character he's a good 15 years too old for) and wife Emily Mortimer who still has a few personal demons knocking on the closet door taking the scenic route back from missionary aid work in China and falling in with Eduardo Noriega and Kate Mara's much-travelled English language teachers. It's well observed and the striking shots of the train en route convey the reality of long train journeys rather more convincingly than most, but there's still that feeling of waiting for the story to start. After a false start when one character goes missing that doesn't really happen until almost the halfway point when Kingsley and Thomas Kretschmann join the journey, but once it does it becomes increasingly gripping even if the last act isn't quite as convincing as it is enthralling.
There's a brief detour into Hostel territory as the kind of travellers' tales they dismiss early in the film start to come home to roost, but for the most part it works because of the character flaws in the trio of unlikely couples the film finally focuses on - if Harrelson doesn't quite convince, Mortimer is quite superb as she finds herself caught between the light and the dark, a situation Kingsley's jaded narc is only too familiar with in a modern Russia with its reduced life expectancy: "Then we were people living in the darkness," he notes of the days of Soviet rule. "Now we are a people dying in the light." Visually Anderson takes his cue from the metaphor, staging his few but memorable setpieces in cold bright winter light. If this particular train takes a little too long to pick up speed and throws in one deus ex machina too many in its grand finale, it works just well enough as a character study and a thriller to make it worth a look.
Icon's DVD has a nice 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with a handful of deleted and extended scenes and a half-hour making of documentary as extras.
There's a brief detour into Hostel territory as the kind of travellers' tales they dismiss early in the film start to come home to roost, but for the most part it works because of the character flaws in the trio of unlikely couples the film finally focuses on - if Harrelson doesn't quite convince, Mortimer is quite superb as she finds herself caught between the light and the dark, a situation Kingsley's jaded narc is only too familiar with in a modern Russia with its reduced life expectancy: "Then we were people living in the darkness," he notes of the days of Soviet rule. "Now we are a people dying in the light." Visually Anderson takes his cue from the metaphor, staging his few but memorable setpieces in cold bright winter light. If this particular train takes a little too long to pick up speed and throws in one deus ex machina too many in its grand finale, it works just well enough as a character study and a thriller to make it worth a look.
Icon's DVD has a nice 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with a handful of deleted and extended scenes and a half-hour making of documentary as extras.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
Some films transfer brilliantly to high-definition, and the filming of Transsiberian means it'll be a treat on a big screen in Blu-ray. However, it's a patchy thriller which won't to suit everyone. If you have an appreciation of the Russian mindset and landscape then it gets off to a great start -- the photography of the country is superbly rendered as the train sweeps through it. The dialogue has moments of sublime Russian truth, too; bittersweet post-Soviet humour and observation. (The only two ways out of Russia are on a private jet or in a coffin... for example).
The plot is slightly less successful and takes a while to get up to speed. It's hard to believe that two American travellers could be as naive as clean-cut Woody Harrelson and his alcoholic wife, or that their semi-hippy counterparts could be as predictable. The Russian police detectives, other travellers and train conductors are much more credible.
In the end, Transsiberian boils down to a fairly standard drugs/money heist story -- but one with a stunningly beautiful backdrop which also features some excellent acting turns from Harrelson and Ben Kingsley. There are a few moments of poignant insight into modern Russia, which contrast awkwardly with some scenes of outlandish action and brutal violence.
Two hours of entertaining viewing for us; a film we'd happily watch again and we'll look out for other movies by this director.
8/10
The plot is slightly less successful and takes a while to get up to speed. It's hard to believe that two American travellers could be as naive as clean-cut Woody Harrelson and his alcoholic wife, or that their semi-hippy counterparts could be as predictable. The Russian police detectives, other travellers and train conductors are much more credible.
In the end, Transsiberian boils down to a fairly standard drugs/money heist story -- but one with a stunningly beautiful backdrop which also features some excellent acting turns from Harrelson and Ben Kingsley. There are a few moments of poignant insight into modern Russia, which contrast awkwardly with some scenes of outlandish action and brutal violence.
Two hours of entertaining viewing for us; a film we'd happily watch again and we'll look out for other movies by this director.
8/10
Most Recent Customer Reviews
With lies, you may go ahead in the world, but you may never go back.
Transsiberian is directed by Brad Anderson who also co-writes the screenplay with Will Conroy. It stars Woody Harrleson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Ben Kingsley and Eduardo... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Spike Owen
very good suspense
If you like suspense movies, this one is for you. This is the best suspense movie I have seen in years. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Profr R. Cohenalmagor
Worth viewing
What attracted me to this movie is that just over thirty-two years ago, I took The Trans-siberian westbound from Khabarovsk to Irkutsk. Read more
Published 4 months ago by G. D. Busby
Irritating
I found this one of the most irritating and annoying films I've ever seen, which considering the possibilities and some of the names involved is surprising. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. P. Jarvis
Cancel that Russian holiday
Not sure what the Russian tourist board would make of this movie but it is almost enough to put me off taking a train ride there. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Shrewlord
Transsiberian
Bought this as might be going on a transsiberian holiday, so thought I would get some feel for the country
Published 10 months ago by mowers
Another Mortimer masterclass
I don't know if it's because I've spent far too many long distance train journeys in my life filled with nothing more interesting than somebody setting off the smoke alarm by... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Steve G
watchable if a little predictable
I watched the film but couldn't get into it.All a little predictable with over the top acting.Not for me,sorry.
Published 19 months ago by s
Unusually intelligent modern thriller
Smart, complex thriller that relies mostly on character and behavior, not easy shocks, for it's tension. That's increasingly rare in modern suspense films. Read more
Published 19 months ago by K. Gordon
Watch it soon
Bought dvd a little while back, sitting on lounge table at the moment, might get around to watching it after the world cup... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Mr. S. Burrows
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