A thriller aboard the Trans-Siberian line, stretching 5,000 miles from Beijing to Moscow, is certainly original. Transsiberian director Brad Anderson, certainly has fun with the exotic setting but his main characters could use more spice. There's no question that trouble lies around the next snow in the tracks and the good thing is seeing how the trouble unspools for the couple. But by the time the always excellent actor Ben Kingsley takes over as a Russian inspector Anderson's once- promising trip gets better and stays more in the rails. It's not a totally terrific combination of action, mystery and adventure but works on the whole.

The first act, the two couples (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer, and Kate Mara and Eduardo Noriega) meeting aboard the Transsiberian Railway, travelling from China to Moscow, and socialising with each other, and with other passengers, is well done. Harrelson and especially Mortimer become suspicious of their new travelling companions.A beautiful, crumbling cathedral, secluded in the snow covered wilderness is the site of a particularly brutal moment, a turning point in the plot. The focus of the plot shifts to back to Emily Mortimer, and her actions, and fear of any consequences it may bring. It begins the second act, which is the best part of this film, as it shows the growing tension and fear of her horrific actions being found out. Ben Kingsley (exceptional, as always) turns up, as a cop with suspicions of his own, and possibly his own ulterior motives. This entire second act is nearly unwatchably tense. Sadly though, the plot derails (pun completely intended) in the final act, with a couple of confusing, highly unlikely twists involving the Russian mob and drug smuggling cluttering up the mix.It never regains the focus it had, and offers an inconclusive ending. I wish the plot would have stayed focused on her fear and paranoia of her crime being found out by Kingsley, even though it was justified.Still highly recommended, for top notch acting, and cinematography, capturing both the bleakness and desolation and isolation of Lithuania (standing in for Russia) and the tight, crowded confines of the train itself.

"Transsiberian" can be described as a train thriller for the twenty- first century. Train thrillers were once quite popular; several of Alfred Hitchcock's films, for example, include significant scenes set on a train, including "The Lady Vanishes", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Strangers on a Train" and "North by North-West". The sub-genre, however, declined in the latter part of the twentieth century as aircraft began to replace trains as the preferred medium for long-distance travel in America and most other parts of the world. The film is officially described as a Spanish-German-British-Lithuanian co-production, and is probably the only example of a Spanish-German- British-Lithuanian co-production I have ever seen. Indeed, it is probably the only example of a Spanish-German-British-Lithuanian co- production anyone has ever seen. In the modern age, however, even multi- national European co-productions need to work for the Yankee dollar, so "Transsiberian" was directed by an American, Brad Anderson, and revolves around the adventures of an American couple abroad. The couple in question, Roy and Jessie, have been working in China as part of a Christian mission, and because Roy is something of a train buff decide to return home via Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Railway. (That would be the normal spelling in English, even if the makers of this film prefer the bizarre "Transsiberian"). On the journey they befriend another American woman, Abby, and her Spanish boyfriend Carlos. About the first half-hour of the film is taken up with little more than small-talk between the two couples and we wonder when the thrills are going to start. And then, of course, they do. Roy mysteriously goes missing from the train and it looks as if we are in for an unacknowledged remake of "The Lady Vanishes", but a few minutes later we learn there is a rational, and perfectly banal, explanation for his disappearance; he missed the train in while sightseeing in Irkutsk, will catch the next train, and all Jessie needs to do is to wait at the next stop until they are reunited. And so the film sets off on its own roller-coaster journey in the course of which it repeatedly turns from one type of thriller into another. From a "missing person" thriller it becomes a "girl in peril from a charming but sinister stranger" thriller, and then a "woman wrongly suspected of murder" thriller, and then a "some-other-type-of-thriller", and then a .......well, you get the general idea. This sudden, continuous switching from one storyline to another means that the film never has a chance to arouse much interest; as soon as we have got interested in one scenario, it place is quickly usurped by another. The other thing I disliked about the film was the way it, despite being a Spanish-German-British-Lithuanian co-production, pandered to American paranoia about Abroad, especially about Russia and Eastern Europe, a paranoia which has been all to obvious in a number of recent Hollywood movies. Roy and Jessie are the quintessential innocents abroad, good Godfearing American folks who blunder into a nightmare when they travel to foreign parts with the best of motives. The Cold War may be over, but Russia is still a dangerous, hostile place for innocent Americans, a land of gangsterism and corrupt officialdom which may just be two sides of the same counterfeit coin. Even Western Europeans are not necessarily to be trusted; Roy and Jessie discover to their cost that their Spanish fellow traveller Carlos may be as big a threat to them as any Russian. .Probably the best acting performances come from Ben Kingsley as a Russian detective and Eduardo Noriega as the handsome and charismatic but sinister Carlos. Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer are both a bit anonymous, but I wondered if this was a deliberate attempt to emphasis Roy and Jessie's "Mr and Mrs Average" credentials. The characterisation of Roy may owe something to the common British preconception that trainspotters are all anorak-clad nerds who desperately need to get a life. There is some attractive, atmospheric photography of the snowbound Russian landscapes, but overall "Transsiberian" is a film which does not really hang together and relies too heavily on xenophobic fears. If it was an attempt to emulate Hitchcock's train thrillers, it falls a long way short of the Master's work. 4/10

Transsibberian (2008) is a psychological mystery-thriller that tells the tale of two American travelers Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) on their way from China to Moscow by using the old sturdy means of transportation, the train. They encounter a mysterious couple Abby (Kate Mara) and Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) whom befriend them become entwined in the couple's journey there. Jessie reluctantly develops a growing attraction for Carlos and then boom, her husband goes AWOL. Destination from hell. Purely from personal opinion, how anybody would willingly want to take a trip like this is mind-boggling. The film does a brilliant job of highlighting the lack of safety afforded to foreign travelers on the train. As the train reaches Moscow, some of the political nuances are discussed to provide overview (in a non-lecturing type of way). This is all done with great restraint, due to its status of not being a documentary and obviously, no one has signed up for one. Director Brad Anderson does little to highlight it as a go-to travel experience. The word bleak comes to mind when describing the atmosphere of the train ride. So, of course friendliness afforded to this American couple by other train travelers is troublesome and cause for suspicion. The camera pays special attention to the facial expressions of each pertinent character that the audience puts priority on deciphering the motives of this well-traveled couple. Sir Ben Kingsley plays a pivotal role in moving the films narrative during the middle of the film and of course, his screen presence never hurts. The first half brings us more mystery than thriller and vice versa. Everything is where it needs to be, no fat or fluff to eat up some screen time.