Cold Dark Ride

Transsiberian veers off the tracks
by Morgan P Salvo

   Opening with an intriguing and deftly shot scene, Transsiberian promises a film that will look good, even if it goes sour. And sadly, sour it goes -- not only for the characters, but the audience as well. Nevertheless there’s something compelling about this snow-driven trek. At least it keeps you wondering what will happen next.

A do-gooder American couple (not without their own problems), Roy & Jessie (Woody Harrelson/Emily Mortimer), depart from a charity trip, traveling from China to Russia via the historic Transsiberian train. They meet up with a suspicious couple, Carlos & Abby (Eduardo Noriega/Kate Mara) whose motives immediately become questionable. As the characters get acquainted, any suspense breaks apart by the “the getting to know you” dialogue. This technique works in quick sound bites-- edited together with some scenic footage from the train but that method quickly diminishes. What was needed was more intrigue to get us back into suspense mode, focusing on the characters real agendas, and delete the overload of unnecessary personal biography info. After a few misguided episodes, Russian Narcotics officer Grinko (Ben Kingsley) joins in the dreary ride

What was really lacking as the movie progressed was a sense of urgency-- the time it took setting up the characters could have been well spent giving us more clues, or deception around the characters real agendas. The tables get turned a couple of times but nothing that psychologically intimidates or fools us—when I started thinking there might be some kind of double cross it turns out to be just a ponderous view of a character that is never explained. On the whole, the train stops in loophole city way too often.
There’s a lot of prophesying containing some quality quotes: “Life is a journey not a destination,” “If you kill all your demons you might destroy your angels too,” “Live in darkness, die in light”. In fact there are so many sayings that some are acknowledged by the characters themselves. “Who said that?” –“Tennessee Williams, I think”. If that’s not enough Grinko is constantly starting a sentence by saying, “In Russia we have this saying…”
Mortimer’s performance gives the movie its jolt (her character ends up holding a deadly secret). In fact everyone is pretty darn superb, the weakest link being Harreslon; he plays the church-going dweeb just a little too much like a cartoonish geek for my money, but it isn’t distracting enough to ruin the film. The director (Brad Anderson), responsible for two movies I really liked (The Machinist and Session 9), falters in capturing a consistent vision: the gritty and claustrophobic train interiors are eye catching and the imposing figure of the Russian police is nice and menacing, but again, right when it starts getting creepy and suspense builds, it dissipates. The most troubling aspect was when it teetered into Hitchcock territory, telegraphing evidence to us via flashbacks as though we hadn’t been paying attention throughout.

When the plot wanted to thicken it felt as though most of the significance to any relevant scenes beforehand were sifted out, leaving the guts of the script on the cold floor to be kicked around. Some staggering plot holes jarred my brain. Case in point: why could the corrupt narcotics officer pinpoint so many details in one regard, and yet stumble on the easy ones. A murder committed left the unanswered question as to why that character was even capable of committing such an act. Where Transsiberian really derails is in its interrogation/torture scene, which jumps from one empty idea to another that eventually screams unoriginal. Although some might find the ending symbolic, I felt it was a major let down due to its lack of believability.

Transsiberian is like a whodunit that leaves you with “why’d they do it?” Leaving suspense to fall by the wayside, erroneous red-herrings are stuck all over the place, never seeming to gel with the overall ambiance of the flick. Ultimately Transsiberian goes in so many right directions, and then takes all the wrong turns.


 Transsiberian
Starring: Emily Mortimer, Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley
Director: Brad Anderson
 2 stars