Transsiberian.

"A suspenseful Hitchockian course is charted by Transsiberian, which concerns the murderous intrigue that envelops American tourists Roy (Woody Harrelson) and wife Jessie (Emily Mortimer) while making the famous week-long Transsiberian train trek from Beijing to Moscow," writes Nick Schager in Slant. "Despite HD cinematography that can't quite capture the ominous grandeur of the vast landscape through which the train travels, director Brad Anderson establishes a suitably portentous mood through claustrophobic staging and an overarching air of linguistic and cultural isolation."

"At its queasy best - when absorbing the naturally phantasmagoric vibes of Siberia and surveying Jessie's grueling efforts to discard a backpack filled with unwanted goods - Transsiberian more subtly critiques our American sense of privilege than any of [Eli] Roth's Hostel pictures," writes Ed Gonzalez in the Voice. "But just as nasty as the titular mode of transport is the script's wanton declaration of theme and a cynical and fashionable belief in moral grayness that may complement the frosty setting but nonetheless feels easy."

Updated through 7/23.

"Ben Kingsley, seen briefly at the beginning of the movie before disappearing, only to re-emerge much later, plays Grinko, a duplicitous narcotics detective," notes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "A sophisticated embodiment of a cynical middle-aged Russian with a double vision of his country during and after Communism, he lends the movie a modern Dostoyevskian gloss.... 'In Russia, we have an expression,' he says, fixing his eyes on Jessie, who is frozen with panic. 'With lies you may go forward in the world, but you may never go back.' The cat-and-mouse game that ensues leads Transsiberian from tantalizing mystery into clanking melodrama."

"Though Harrelson's name is first in the cast list, Transsiberian belongs to Mortimer, who digs into a complicated character who seems decent and trustworthy, but often acts out of ruthless self-interest when the pressure's on," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club. "While it piles on the hair-raising twists, the film is ultimately a morality tale about the devastating consequences of people not taking responsibility for their actions."

"Mr Anderson, who first garnered attention with whimsical romantic comedies such as Next Stop Wonderland and Happy Accidents, has since made a credible transition to thrillers, with Session 9 and The Machinist," notes Martin Tsai in the New York Sun. "The captivating Transsiberian is another impressive addition to his filmography. It stays on point even when the screenplay, written by Mr Anderson and Will Conroy, becomes increasingly reliant on convenient coincidences."

"If you can look past the gimmick of Christian Bale's weight loss, you can see an unabashedly old-fashioned, noirish attitude in writer/director Brad Anderson's The Machinist (2004) that carries over into his latest film, Transsiberian," writes Simon Abrams in the New York Press. "Both are playfully subdued psychological thrillers that could just as easily have been B-films from John Frankenheimer's 1960s period save for the grisly violence that pervades The Machinist and (thankfully) only rears its head twice in Transsiberian."

"The action heroics aren't terrible, only disappointing given the ticket we've bought," writes Joshua Rothkopf in Time Out New York.

The Film Panel Notetaker went to work at a recent advance screening.

Jeffrey M Anderson talks with Anderson for Cinematical.

Charles McGrath profiles Mortimer for the New York Times; Marnie Hanel talks with her for VF Daily.

Updates: "Even if you've seen lots of movies of this type and can figure out exactly what's going to happen, Anderson takes great pleasure in the pure form and execution of it," writes Jeffrey M Anderson at Cinematical. "Best of all, before any of this starts, the film spends at least a reel on - get this - developing the characters!... Perhaps that's the reason Transsiberian works so well; the film's plot and suspense are all a matter of skill, but the characters continue to derail us."

"I was taking notes during the screening, but at a certain point I just wrote 'THEY'RE F*CKED,' and stopped writing," recalls Kevin Buist at the SpoutBlog. "It's one of those thrillers that does character development well enough that when the protagonists get in serious trouble you can feel your intestines twisting with anxiety."

Aaron Hillis talks with Anderson for IFC; bookmark it, then come back when you've seen Transsiberian, as there are spoilers in there.

Updates, 7/19: At Cinematical, Scott Weinberg notes that Anderson considering a few horror projects for his next step or two.

"Brad Anderson makes movies that are hard to look away from and movies that you can still see after they're over," writs Canfield at Twitch. "This is another way of saying that he makes vital movies, alive movies, movies that thrum with a pulse that sounds beyond the genres they inhabit. Transsiberian offers up equal measures of suspense, character development and story and ties it all together with gorgeous photography. The whole emerges as do almost all of Andersons films, as a telling morality play in which guilt figures heavily as a shaper of destiny."

Update, 7/23: "Harrelson can't wrestle a believable human out of this underwritten caricature named Roy, I am afraid, but Mortimer's Jessie, who at first seems a demure Christian from Middle America, is a delicate but ferocious construction, defined by urges and desires she battles but can't quite control," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "As recent patchwork-grade thrillers go, Transsiberian is a perfectly decent effort."

Posted by dwhudson at July 18, 2008 7:57 AM