Transsiberian

[Bourne101]

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/first_look/transsiberian/transsiberian_galleryposter.jpg

Directed by Brad Anderson

Written by Brad Anderson and Will Conroy

Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/first_look/transsiberian/_group_photos/emily_mortimer1.jpg

Tagline: You can't escape your lies.

Plot Outline: A Trans-Siberian train journey from China to Moscow becomes a thrilling chase of deception and murder when an American couple encounters a mysterious pair of fellow travelers.

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, Thomas Kretschmann, and Ben Kingsley

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/first_look/transsiberian/emily_mortimer/transsiberian.jpg

Rated R for some violence, including torture and language.

Runtime: 111 minutes

Looks pretty damn good and has a 100% rating on RT. Looking forward to it.

[ilovemovies]

I hope this goes wide sometime because it looks pretty cool.

[Moviefan1234]

I've been anticipating this little film for a long time. Brad Anderson has made two gem films in SESSION 9 and THE MACHINIST, I'm hoping this makes him three for three. TRANSSIBERIAN looks like a hitchcockian thriller that will deliver.

[adamjohnson]

Is ther a list of theaters?

[visual_tension]

Brad Anderson has followed The Machinist with yet another good film. All the performances are really solid, but Emily Mortimer's rises above them all. She did a tremendous job. The atmosphere is effective and the tension is handled well.

The film takes a while to get going though. I felt like something was going to happen at any moment, but the first act seemed to drag on for a bit longer than it should have. Also, there were at least two quick flashbacks that were completely unnecessary.

Overall, Transsiberian is still a well-made thriller that shows why Anderson is a director who should get more recognition.

7/10

[Brendan M.]

I saw this at Sundance Film Festival. It was AMAZING! Here is a quick Review:


The most intense film I've seen so far here at Sundance. If anyone here is not familar with director Brad Anderson, I would reccomend that you go out and rent The Machinist. That one stars Christian Bale in my favorite role of his so far. Now after seeing Trannsiberian and seeing actress Emily Mortimer give an amazing performance, I'm guessing Mr. Anderson knows what he's doing when directing his actors.



The movie follows a married couple going through some rough times and decide to go on an adventure together, travelling on the Transsiberian from China to Moscow. They quickly discover that the days of the Transsiberian’s glorious luxury have faded since the fall of the USSR and is now home to many drug traffickers and the corrupt cops who persue them. The couple becomes involved with all this after becoming buddies with a suspicious couple who are being hunted down by Ben Kingsley's character, a detective who's methods of interrogration are straight out of Reservoir Dogs.



You don't see too many thrillers that take place on trains these days, and this isn't your typical James Bond/Transporter style action thriller. This is a Hitchcock style thriller with the use of the MacGuffin in a character driven story about ordinary people thrown into an extraorginary situation. Emily's performance as a nervous wreck puts the audience on the edge of their seats more than the action does. She is without a doubt the highlight of the film. She deserves an Oscar nomination. If not for this film, maybe in the upcoming Scorsese film Shutter Island where she plays a female serial killer. The supporting cast is great as well from Woody Harrelson who plays the everyday, church-going American husband who has a fascination with choo-choo trains, and the great Ben Kingsley who is one hell of a villian straight out of the heart of Mother Russia and is at times sympathetic despite being a hard ass.

An amazing cast thrown into a psychological rollercoaster, I'd give this film an A.

[Lazy Boy]

7/10

A couple (Emily Mortimer and Woody Harrelson) set out into the dark heart of the Russian wilderness via the Transsiberian railroad, and, like any Hitchcockian dupes, find themselves immersed in a plot far more twisted and convoluted than their everyday American lives would have them expect. Director Brad Anderson made the terrific psychological mindfuck Session 9 and followed up with The Machinist, starring everybody's favorite overpraised-by-the-internet icon Christian Bale. Quite similar to the latter film, Transsiberian pulls the viewer in with a slow pace and some nice twists, but falls apart with an obvious, tired denouement and a "been there, seen that" feeling. Of the cast, Mortimer excels in one of the best performances of the year, and Harrelson is appropriately cast as an oblivious hayseed (why not play yourself?), and Ben Kingsley shows up as a detective for the local police unit, with the stomach to go far in pressing interrogative methods to find just exactly what he is looking for.

[Cosimo]

emily mortimer is a little tease!

haha me kid. pretty good thriller. mortimer was outstanding. harrleson and kingsley also

location was refreshing. a 7

[chinton]

I agree with everybody that its a solid little thriller with a contrived second half and a great location.

7/10


I view both this and Machinist as solid. Session 9 is excellent though and I'm waiting for him to make a film as good as that again.

[Brendan M.]

Wow, quite a lot of sevens.

[Cosimo]

Wow, quite a lot of sevens.

could have been darker. could have been better

[MoovEDude]

For me, 7s are worthy of rentals and possible purchases. I have no problem with 7s. Sometimes I even bypass buying an 8 in favor of a 7. :D

[ilovemovies]

For me, 7s are worthy of rentals and possible purchases. I have no problem with 7s. Sometimes I even bypass buying an 8 in favor of a 7. :D

Same here.

I'll be seeing this movie either tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it. It looks really good.

[Cronos]

It was decent, I just found it rather predictable in how the characters would act and the twists the plot took, it did drag in places but the acting was pretty good. Worth a rental. 6/10

[ilovemovies]

SPOILERS!






I disagree that it's predictable. Infact, the thing I liked most about the movie was the misdirection. For instance, I thought for sure that Harrelson was dead and that when she is speaking to him it's just a previously taped recording of his voice. But it ended up not being that.

I thought for sure that the Carlos and his girlfriend were going to end up kidnapping them but instead she actually ends up killing him in self defense.

From the moment Mortimer kills the Carlos character, I really felt the movie became unpredictable and I wasn't sure which direction it would go.

I suppose the movie becomes more predictable once Harrelson and Mortimer woke up and found the train empty and part of it gone, but the climax was still a real nailbiter I thought.

Very good movie. Tautly directed by Brad Anderson. I think between this, The Machinist and Session 9, this is my favorite of his so far. They are all solid movies and he's proving himself to be a really good director of thrillers.

Harreslon and especially Mortimer are excellent. Kingsley, Kate Mara and the guy who plays Carlos are very solid too.

The movie looks great. It's beautifully photographed. And the sets are all great. Everything from the train itself and the snowy landscapes. This is one of the better movies to come out this summer.

7/10

[AshleyBashley]

I love Emily Mortimer. So underrated.

[bigred760]

I had a hard time enjoying this movie. The characters weren't that interesting to me and nothing happened in the movie until about two-thirds of the way through it, and by then - for the most part - I had lost interest. Up until then, the movie is setting up characters that aren't that interesting and a story that took too long to develop. The movie's last 15-20 minutes are tense, but it wasn't enough to save the movie. It has its moments, but not enough of them.

6/10

[Zizou]

Transsiberian at times builds incredible suspense, especially capturing the anxiety of Emily Mortimer's character. Although it shares a few similarities to a Hitchcockian thriller it lacked the more essential ingredients, charm and wit and a haunting score by Bernard Herrmann.

7/10

[chinton]

I consider Machinist and this equal as in very good. Both are nowhere near session 9 to me which is a masterpiece.

[ilovemovies]

I like Session 9 a lot but it's actually my least favorite of Anderson's movies. This is my favorite and The Machinist would be in second place.

But he's a very solid director and I look forward to his next movie.

[FireCaptain4]

Transsiberian- 6.5/10

Once again, Brad Anderson proves once again that he can direct the hell out of anything. For me, the big downfall of the film was its predictability. At first (****SPOILERS****) I didn't know whether Harrelson's character had died or not (****END SPOILERS***) but after that was revealed it, the rest of the film felt rather familiar. On the plus side, all of the acting is fantastic and there is some genuine suspense in the film. However, much suspense is lost due to a real lack of suprises (then again, not all feel the same way I do) and I couldn't quite sympathize with Emily Mortimer's character in the film due to some of the actions she commits. It's good, but I'd say it's Anderson's weakest.

[Max Cady]

Whats up with all the Session 9 love? that movie was boring and nothing ever happened, felt like a complete waste of time.

Transsiverian on the other hand was great, Carlos stole the show IMO, never seen him in anything before but he played that character to a T. Mortimer was great as well.

8.5/10

[JCPhoenix]

I gotta say, I was a little disappointed in this film. It's well-shot, and has a slow-burn pacing to it that really worked for me. But I think it completely derails with a turning point midway through the movie involving Emily Mortimer's character that was utterly, completely, ridiculous (and the way it was filmed made it even more stupid). At that point, I lost all sympathy for Mortimer's character. I felt like Anderson meant for us to sympathize with her (which is part of the reason for the long setup) but she just keeps digging her own hole bigger and bigger. She lies when it makes absolutely no sense for her to lie. And she continues bungling everything up right up to the finale.

I gotta say, I don't have a lot of faith left in Brad Anderson's work. The Machinist was great due to the atmosphere but honestly, it basically rips off his own previous film. The reason The Machinist works well is due to the great atmosphere while Session 9 was quite mediocre and frankly, not all that scary. I was really hopeful and excited about Transsiberian but it ultimately ended up disappointing.

6/10