Harkening back to the thrillers of the Hitchcock age, Brad Anderson's "Transsiberian" takes something seemingly innocent (a train ride), and turns it into something intense and even terrifying. Roy and Jessie (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) are an American couple who have just finished mission work near Beijing. Seeing as they have more time to kill before heading back home, they decide to ride a train from Beijing all the way up to Moscow. Along the way, they befriend their cabin-mates, Abby and Carlos (Kate Mara and Eduardo Norriega). However, one day at a stop, Roy mysteriously misses the train and things start to snowball. And then in comes an ex KGB agent, Ilya Grinko (Ben Kingsley), who casually informs Jessie about the newest way that drug lords are sneaking heroin into Russia, and before you know it, the transsiberian railway becomes a one way journey to hell. With some great photography, and occaisionally jittery camera work, the vast emtpiness of Siberia and the claustrophic interior of the train is neatly established, and the performances are quite solid. Where this taut little thriller goes awry is in its second half. Not that the second half is bad, it's where most of the intensity is, but at times it feels like everyone was trying too hard to make the film into a big blockbuster-type climax, as opposed to focusing more on psychological and emotional tension. And then there's also the issue of Emily Mortimer's Jessie, a character who is forced to shout, "oh sh*t!!" so many times near the end that it borders on being laughable. Still, this is a nicely made, intriguing independent thriller that deserves to be seen, especially considering that it provides more suspense, mystery, and intensity that many big budget action blockbusters.
Grade: B
Number of 2008 films seen: 53
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