by Raffi Varoujian

Created on: February 01, 2010   Last Updated: December 16, 2011

This is a curious film – one that, on the face of it, should have received a bit more popular and critical attention on release – if only for the quality of the cast. Unfortunately, it suffered from bad timing, opening in Europe on the same day as The Dark Knight, with all the attendant hype and publicity arising from the untimely demise of the talented Heath Ledger. Somehow, this low-key but worthy film got lost in the shuffle, making just the faintest of impressions on the collective movie-going psyche. That’s a crying shame, as it clearly deserves a whole lot better.

Synopsis

“In Russia, we have expression. "With lies, you may go ahead in the world, but you may never go back."

Kingsley plays a hardened and enigmatic detective in the narcotics division of the Russian police force. His beat encompasses the Tran-Siberia Express, a railway service between Beijing and Moscow that takes an epic seven days from start to finish - a route apparently popular with heroin smugglers. We first meet his character, Detective Grinko, very early on as he investigates a murder. However, after the briefest of introductions, the story takes us elsewhere, and he doesn’t reprise his role until much later in the movie. From the bowels of a container ship in Vladivostok, we are abruptly transported to a plush hotel in Beijing, where we meet the American couple at the heart of the film - Jessie (Emily Mortimer) and Roy (Woody Harrelson).  Returning from a Christian mission in China, they decide to take the railway instead of a flight – partly because of Roy’s boyish love of trains, and partly because of the promise of  adventure.

The rickety and ageing train provides the back-drop for much of the character-building and background information necessary for the viewer to engage with the characters and start to develop some empathy for them. Early in their journey, Jessie and Roy meet another, younger, couple who end up sharing their train compartment. Abby (Kate Mara) is a displaced young American travelling the world, and her partner is a flirtatious, and slightly unsettling Spaniard named Carlos (Eduardo Noriega). Despite their differing backgrounds, they become friends, mostly because there is very little to do on the train and they all happen to speak English.

The film meanders on until, at a short stop-over in Irkutsk, Roy, distracted by some antique steam locomotives in the rail yard, fails to re-board the train in time. His

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>