Transsiberian

I was too lazy to MS Paint in some explosions.

If Michael Bay got his inartistic hands on 'Transsiberian', the title would have been changed to 'Train of DEATH! Explode!' and he would have added quite a bit of C4 charges and a dash of Nick Cage.

Fortunately, that didn't happen.

I forgot what my Goobers rating scale was, but I give this movie: 6.5 Goobers (out of ten)


The film is directed by Brad Anderson and stars Woodrow Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara and Sir Ben Kingsley. It also runs a little long at 111 minutes.

The movie is basically a murder mystery/suspense thriller. Similar to writer/director Anderson's previous full-length suspense flick El Maquinista (featuring Christian 'bag of bones' Bale). In 'Transsiberian', Anderson moves away from copying Alfred Hitchcock and places his own personal touch on this film. While Anderson has done other genres, such as comedy, this will likely be his forte with future projects.

The acting was solid. Woodrow plays the lovable/naive/idiot/religious/friendly husband role with a pathetic admiration for trains. Mortimer plays the 'wild child converted into boring wife because she was nervous of dying from overdose or some sexually transmitted disease.' Instead of building up this sorted past through subtle dialouge, Anderson throws it in the viewer's face with shots of a 'tramp stamp', defiant smoking and other blatant symbols that shouts out to the audience, "I used to be cool, until I met Woodrow." Mortimer also goes to GREAT LENGTHS to preserve a web of lies. Which makes me really hate her character.

Kate Mara provides for pleasant scenery, not much else...except for one alarming scene towards the end that reminds me of the deli at the Italian Store.

Ben Kingsley is great, he does not have the ability to be anything else.

The movie moves from the 'this could happen to you' genre to borderline preposterous, even for Vladimir Putin's Russia.

This movie will fly under the radar of most major cinemas. I definitely recommend seeing it, however you may want to wait for either a matinée or the DVD release.



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