I borrowed this from a mate 6 weeks ago and have yet to watch it until now, mainly because the director of this made Session 9, that I’ve built up here. Because this seems to have slipped under the radar I was scared that it would suck.
Well I’ve watched it now, and I can tell you, it ain’t too bad.
It isn’t Session 10, and there isn’t really one memorable thing about it or a scene to describe that will make it sound like a “must see”, but it’s solid from start to finish, never boring and will keep you guessing.
The opening scene: Russian police are investigating a drug related murder, nothing special happens, but it tells us Ben Kingsley is a Russian detective.
Cut to China, a young couple Roy and Jess are members of a church sponsored social group, and as a treat for their marriage they decide to take the long way home via duh-duh-duh-daaaaaaaaa! The Transsiberian line. It is supposed to benefit the marriage as Roy is a rail buff with a model railway at home, and Jess is a wannabe photographer who takes the opportunity to grab some snaps along the way.
In the first 20 minutes they soon realize that they are Strangers in a Strange Land, there are finicky drug searches, corruption and casual brutality, often initiated by the police.
So they get some cabin mates and then the fun starts in earnest, another young couple, introverted American girl Abby and Spanish (?) Carlos, a swarthy, chatty schmoove guy, who immediately befriends Roy.
At a stop Roy and Carlos head off to look at stationary trains, and the girls sit on the station bench and chat about their respective pasts. Soon after the train takes off Jess realizes Roy isn’t aboard, and an onboard investigation brings up nothing, so she has no option but to backtrack and look for Roy at the previous station, now good buddies Carlos and Abby decide to come along for protection and company.
By this stage you already have theories and suspicions about what has, and what will happen from here (it’s a movie after all, that’s what you’re supposed to do), what I found is that I was often close but never spot on, and sometimes the plot flip-flops into another direction entirely. One minute it’s a mystery, then a whodunit, then briefly a Hostel clone, but by the end it all wraps up nicely.
Hard to describe a film like this without giving away the game, but I will say that to outline the whole deal would be an extensive and exhaustive process, and Transsiberian is a film that will keep you guessing and at least interested the whole way through.
There are really only 5 actors with any significant lines in the film, and they’re all mentioned above and play vital parts in the film, and play them well. The tone is kept quite low key, and the vision is always washed out and colourless, as it is generally set in Wintry Russia.
There are no big budget setpieces, no big stunts or tricky camera work, and probably even less action than Session 9, which didn’t have much either.
This is just solid filmmaking and I would argue a worthy 2 hours of your time.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Lacks the punch (and payoff) of Session 9, but good storytelling and an everchanging plotline should keep you aboard.