Transsiberian

I watched Transsiberian last night. This one came out last year, but didn't get a lot of buzz. Too bad because the direction is awesome, the movie is crammed with great actors and performances and it looks great. The movie is centered around Roy and Jessie, an American couple in Beijing for a church volunteer mission who decide to go home via the Siberian railroad to Moscow. Roy, played by Woody Harrelson, is a earnest fan of trains but wife Jessie, played by an absolutely fantastic Emily Mortimer, is a former wild child. She is tempted by a roguish Spanish traveller, although she also befriends his young American companion.

The movie is slow moving, but you can feel the walls closing in around Roy and Jessie even when they don't see it. Ben Kingsley's shadowy Russian policeman complicates their lives and they find themselves way over their heads in backwater Russia.

The director, Brad Anderson, also made Session 9, a horror movie I also adore. Both movies share a wonderfully tense build up of suspense. This one is happier in many ways that the bleak Session 9, but both are better than most films out there.