Transsiberian (2008)
Last Watch Date - April 30, 2023
Total Times Watched - Twice
Comments
Siberia left a bad taste in my mouth, so I hit up this one ALSO about Siberia (sort of). I had already seen it so I kinda knew what I was getting.
The cast in this is pretty great. You have Emily Mortimer as the main character, Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Kate Mara, and Eduardo Noriega who you MAY know from Abre los Ojos. The script is good and you feel for these characters. Woody's is probably the oddest and maybe slightly miscast. Aside from that, there are some hit or miss Russian accents, but that's expected. Woody doesn't come off as a dorky Christian who would be helping out in a Chinese backwoods church and really likes trains. Don't get me wrong, he's good at what he does, but I don't know that I buy it.
The story is good and relatively intense in parts, though a lot of it is also manufactured by characters. Is the danger actually there? Is it all in their minds? The setting of being stuck on a train across the largest, least inhabited area of Russia helps with the feeling of isolation. YOU'LL NOTICE A PATTERN HERE WITH MOVIES I ENJOY... anywho, the pacing is really solid and, aside from some slow pieces near the end, it keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the movie.
The sets are cool because they're trains mostly. Trains are neat! Shit, am I Woody Harrelson's character? Uhh, without the Jesus. And without the childlike wonder. There are some really cool outdoors scenes as well. They filmed this in Lithuania and MAN does it look nice there. Probably fun for a quick trip to the woods. Do you think that's why the Muscovites invaded and took it over?
Back to the movie- Ben Kingsley's character irks me a bit. I don't really understand his motivations in certain parts, though I understand the general character arc. A lot of the Russians are stereotypical dicks. They could've done a little bit more around that and fleshed out those characters some more rather than focusing so intently on Emily Mortimer. I also wanted to know more about Kate Mara's character - she seemed like a sweet, but misguided girl. She had such highs and lows. LET ME KNOW MORE ABOUT HER.
Recommended?
Yeah, it's good. It's a good thriller that actually thrills rather than .. stills? What? You get it.
