The poster for Transsiberian is two-thirds chilly grey sky and one-third snowy Siberian landscape. The only sign of life is an approaching train… and two small figures fleeing through the snow. It’s a cold poster, and a good representation of this chilly new thriller from director Brad Anderson.

The film opens with Russian narcotics detective Grinko investigating a drug-related murder. It’s a brief scene, one that ends with Grinko advising his superiors that he is going on vacation—and then he disappears for half the movie.

In his absence, the film introduces us to American couple Roy and Jessie, who are in Beijing doing some charity work for children. Instead of flying home, they decide to take the Transsiberian locomotive from Beijing to Moscow. Onboard they meet the charming Spaniard Carlos and his young American companion Abby, who’s a little less social.

An attraction develops between Jessie and Carlos, and we learn that before meeting the church-going Roy, Jessie was a bit of a wild child—they met when she hit him while driving intoxicated. Roy has since managed to return her to the straight and narrow; but as Jessie warns him, “kill off my demons and my angels might die too.”

When Roy fails to get back on the train after a stop, Jessie gets off at the next stop with Carlos and Abby to wait for him on the next train. Since they have time, Carlos convinces Abby to go with him to visit an abandoned old church in the middle of nowhere. There, their attraction verges on the edge of an affair, but Jessie—all of her angels not being dead yet—manages to resist. Unfortunately, this doesn’t sit well with Carlos, who attacks her—and she has no choice but to defend herself.

Re-enter narcotics detective Grinko who just happens to be Roy’s new cabin-mate. Due to Jessie’s nervousness, Grinko begins to suspect she may not be telling Roy everything; but then again, Roy might not be acting entirely truthful himself.

Early in this film, a Russian passenger tells Roy and Jessie that whereas if you wanted to learn about America you might pick up a book, if you wanted to learn about Russia you pick up a shovel. Secrets and lies are at the heart of this thriller.

This tale of an innocent couple caught up way over their head in criminal acts echoes the work of Alfred Hitchcock. If fact, when Jessie first discovered that Roy was missing from the train, I thought for a minute that this film may actually be a remake of Hitch’s 1938 classic The Lady Vanishes, which we actually got a couple of years ago with the Jodie Foster vehicle Flightplan. As it turns out, it was just a plot device to get Carlos and Jessie some alone time and jumpstart this film from Siberian travelogue to icy thriller.

I enjoyed the performances in this film. As Roy, Woody Harrelson channels the small-town aw-shucks nature of his Woody Boyd from Cheers, whereas Ben Kingsley (as Grinko) continues an incredible run this year which includes two other films—The Wackness and Elegy—that are currently in theaters. Is there a nationality that this guy can’t play?

Still, holding her own as Jessie against these two Oscar-nominated actors (Kingsley won for 1982’s Gandhi) is Emily Mortimer, an actress that I have always liked. In this film she has to run the gamut from tough to scared to sexy and back again, and she does each equally well. She also, despite being the heroine, plays a little of the femme fatale role as well. As I understand it, the only thing she didn’t do well was run—and the story goes that director Anderson actually had to digitally alter her strides to make her running look more realistic.

I thought this was a terrific thriller. Anderson and co-screenwriter Will Conroy kept me on my toes and I was never quite sure where the film was taking me next. The snow-covered, barren landscape is photographed beautifully, reminding me a bit of Fargo.

I think Hitchcock would be proud.

Transsiberian is rated R for “some violence, including torture and language.” The R rating is certainly appropriate considering the thematic nature of the violence—and one scene of torture that isn’t grotesque; but it’s not fun to watch either.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Transsiberian.