Since I’m so far behind on reviews anyway, I’ll ignore the big box office hits I still have outstanding and go with this movie that I just got back from seeing. So, I’m assuming when you first saw this review, your first thought was “I’ve never heard of this movie.” Well, neither had I until this past weekend. For those curious how I track down these movies, it’s quite simple. I look at showtime listings each week. In particular, I’ll make sure to pay attention to the listings for the 30 screen AMC theaters in the area. They tend to pick up a lot of under-the-radar “art house” films just because, well, they have 30 screens. If I don’t know what the movie is in a listing, I’ll do a click on it to see more details. And yeah, more times than not, it’s some Bollywood movie. But frequently, it’s some little independent gems that only get a limited release run. Such was the case with Transsiberian. The single greatest thing about trolling showtime listings for films like this is one can get away with knowing pretty much nothing going into the movie. I love a good movie trailer, but there’s a definite advantage as a viewer to know pretty much nothing about a film going into it. When I saw that it starred Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer, the cast already had me interested. I also quite liked the one-sheet poster (as featured in this review), which also gave away next to nothing. Then I did one other thing that I’ll occasionally do when I’ve locked onto a movie like this that I’m interested in seeing - I pulled up Roger Ebert’s review and simply looked at his score for the movie, which in this case was 3.5 stars. So that was enough for me. So, if you’ve got any real intention on seeing this movie, I encourage you to do the same, and stop reading this review. This was a great movie to go into not knowing a thing. It’s got a some language and occasional violence. If that’s not gonna bother ya, then stop paying any more attention and just see it.

Writing: This is a taught little thriller. It has a nice variety of characters, intertwined with some nice complexities and interactions. Then there’s the apparently simple plot, which if you think about it closely is actually pretty clever. It pulls off some nice misdirections of suspense, and plays against genre stereotypes in a subtle manner to keep the viewer a bit off balance. And in the end, it achieves a surprising amount of real life believability. Would that big budget studio films could pull off this kind of slick subtlety.

Production: One knows that they are viewing an independent movie at the very start, by not only counting the number of production companies, but the number of nationalities of said companies. The general rule is that the more production companies with logos up front, the tighter the budget (and pity the poor producer of the film, wrangling all these backers). This film is chock full of production companies, and boy the array of nationalities. From what I’ve figured out in a cursory glance at production info online, most of the film was shot in Lithuania, including the gorgeous exterior train shots (featuring some very nice aerial footage). Apparently, Lithuania is a good double for Russia (and why not, it’s a former Soviet state). It totally works. The crew does a fantastic job at making the movie look equally gritty and beautiful, but not overtly stylized. It features some fantastic scope lensing. Given the state of big studio “thrillers” these days, it’s fantastic to see a movie like this, steeped in the Hitchcock world of thrillers.

Cast: If the excellent writing and first rate production weren’t enough, we are treated to a great cast as well. Woody Harrelson gets to play his charming good guy side for this role, and he works marvelously. As the most overtly “good” character, he still brings some nice depth and chemistry to the role. Emily Mortimer get the lions share of the suspense material to play on screen, and as always, she does a fantastic job. I’ve never seen her give a bad performance, and this is certainly no exception to that pattern. She does a nice job selling the troubled history of the character, and she plays very well off all the other actors/characters. One of said characters is that of fellow traveler Abby, played very well by Kate Mara. It took me a bit to figure out what I recognized her from (We Are Marshall - in which she was excellent). Abby’s boyfriend, Carlos, is played by Eduardo Noriega, an actor that I didn’t really have any familiarity with. He does a good job in the role. Always reliable character actor Thomas Kretschmann delivers a silent, cold and menacing performance. And then there was the pleasant surprise of Ben Kingsley in the film. I failed to notice his name on the poster, and had no idea he was in it. Not surprisingly, he does a very good job (and pulls off a very convincing Russian performance - at least to my lowly American ability to recognize a convincing Russian portrayal).

Music: The low key score is well delivered by composer Alfonso Viallonga, somebody I was previously unfamiliar with. While the score does feature in the mix for some of the scenes, it manages to blend into the mix quite well throughout. It definitely lends the right mood and flow to the story. Not the best score of the year, but certainly a solid effort.

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: One bit in the movie I particularly loved was the finale sequence, with Roy & Jessie making their big getaway on a train. That must be the first time I’ve seen characters attempt a spontaneous getaway on a steam locomotive. And the true shock is that it’s realistic in the fact that Roy, only an amateur train enthusiast, is unable to figure out all the controls on the fly, and their big getaway fails - as it most likely would in real life. The script relies more on being clever in realistic ways for their survival than making a big getaway using a train.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.