I love movies set on trains. And I loove movies set in the snow. Imagine my excitement when I heard there'd be a movie set on the longest train ride in the world, in one of the largest snowy region in the world. And it didn't disappoint. Transsiberian could have easily descended into action thriller clichés and been a letdown, but every character is well written, the story has bite and depth to it, and although it's a nasty, cold hearted affair, it's not without its sympathies. Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer play a vacationing American couple on the transsiberian railway. Harrelson is a naive city bumpkin and plays the role well.. Mortimer is phenomenal, at first seeming like a terrified waif, until we learn bit by bit that she has a few sinister secrets, and is taking a dangerous risk and hiding things from her husband. They meet another couple, played by Kate Mara and Eduardo Noriega, and strike a tenuous, suspenseful bond that leads to violent confrontations and secrets being spilled like blood flying into the snow. Kate Mara is brilliant,striking the perfect balance between edgy and unassuming as an outsider girl who is looking for a way out. Ben Kingsley and Thomas Kretschmann show up as shady Russian narcotics agents, trawling the trains compartments in search of drug smugglers. Kingsley steals the movie with the monstrous characters he creates. This is a ruthless, nasty cop that you just don't want to get in the path of. The film is shot in gorgeous, sweeping white and grey brush strokes, visualizing a desolation and quiet sense of impending danger personified by the vast, cold mountainous landscape. It may not be a perfect film and it falters occasionally, but it's an immensely entertaining genre effort brought to life by its committed actors, it's frank, uncompromising narrative and gorgeous locations that are ever changing as the train meanders through the frozen dreamland of snow, wind and looming, beautiful mountains.

I'm absolutely flabbergasted at the high rating Transsiberian has gotten. Predictable, dull, stupid are just some of the adjectives I would use this describe this "thriller" of a movie. Have people not seen any actually good thrillers? Have they not seen any Hitchcock thrillers? You're supposed to sympathize with Emily Mortimer's character, Jessie, as she commits faux pas after faux pas. You know which types of characters are super hard to identify and empathize with? Stupid characters. Jessie, you're afraid of blood stains on your jacket and mittens and yet you conveniently forget you have photographic evidence which places you at the same spot you killed Carlos? Also, how hard is it to lose a backpack on a train? Hello. Earth to Jessie! The biggest unanswered question is how her train wreck of a husband could have forgotten to board the train when we saw he was wandering around with Carlos, who looked too pleased at the sight of portable metal to thrash him with. And you're telling me he missed the train and then shows up alive and well? The one iota of suspense I had over this movie was trying to figure out what/why the husband had planned with Carlos for his precious wife, because no one can be that daft and forget to board the train, right? WRONG. Now that would have been a twist! It's hard to sympathize with idiots. Only watch this if you want to laugh at stupid people and stupid decisions. There are far better movies that take place on a train.

Russian police detective Ilya Grinko (Ben Kingsley) investigates a likely gangland murder for drugs in Vladivostok. Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) are Christian missionaries taking the train from Beijing to Moscow. He befriends cabin mates Spanish Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and his girlfriend Abby (Kate Mara). Roy is trusting while Jessie has her suspicions. Carlos is transporting a collection of souvenir matryoshka dolls. After a stop, Jessie finds Roy missing from the train. Assuming he missed the train, she leaves at the next stop to wait for Roy. Carlos and Abby get off with her. The next day, Carlos takes Jessie to an abandoned church. He tries something which escalates into Jessie killing Carlos. She returns to the train and finds Roy with a new cabin mate in Grinko.There's a train. There's an attempt at suspense. It's looking like a Hitchcock movie. However there are things that keep gnawing at me. First of all, I doubt anybody transports drugs from Beijing into Russia. It just makes no sense. It's tough enough to get drugs into China with the death penalty as your reward. Why would anybody keep transporting it around? Just sell it in China. I buy that drugs come into Vladivostok but why bring it into China just to go back into Russia. It's not a short cut anybody with drugs would ever take.As for movie, it's not that suspenseful. The characters are more annoying than anything. I didn't particularly like Roy or Jessie. They are annoyingly naive. It's some kind of stereotype of Christian missionaries. I also don't really understand why Carlos is waving the dolls around. People just act strangely. Roy seems completely clueless. Carlos seems like such a clingy bad guy that I can't buy Jessie's flirtiness unless they give me a reason like Jessie and Roy have sex problems. In general, I have problems with these character doing what they do. As the story gets more and more twisty, I lose more and more interest. I never buy into these people and I don't care about their predicaments.

An international cast and a beautiful and stylish first hour... we're off to more than a good start. Unfortunately things are quite predictable at times and the eventual conclusion, when the train is brought to the desolate area, made me wonder if Carlos' steps hadn't been easier to trace, and much earlier on as well? Or was it necessary to get that torture scene in there? Also, the use of semi-profound one-liners was working counterproductive. Again, a bit of a disappointment by Brad 'The Machinist' Anderson, even if that first hour is very much okay. An extra kudos to Emily Mortimer; well played and wonderful charisma.6 out of 10.