Brad Anderson's Transsiberian plays on several of my own personal fears, and
maybe they are yours too: the inflexibility of train schedules, sharing small spaces with people i do not know, getting lost in a foreign country, being a dumb american in another country, and being outside without a hat when it's forty below. And now we will just toss in a couple more: having the dining car suddenly and without announcement removed from a train that is making its way across one of the globe's longest countries, and being the primary cause of someone else's torture. If I were Emily Mortimer, I would also be afraid of being too skinny when it's 40 below, but there isn't much chance of that, so we'll stick with torture.
At any rate, we watched this movie Saturday night, and when we turned it on, I was comfy, warm, and worried that I would fall asleep. Not so: this movie begins as intriguing and builds and builds to the point where the prospect of sleep is threatened altogether. If you got stuff you need to get off your mind, go rent this dvd.
It came recommended from our neighbors down the street and their 20-year old daughter whom we adore, and also E!. I won't giveaway any more of the quite exciting plot, but the casting I thought was good (Ben Kingsley is of course first rate), and the cinematography was fabulous. I am a sucker, it should be noted, for trains in general, and this film's shot of the long train winding through snow are at once lovely and sinister. And also, snow is an excellent backdrop for, shall we say, fresh blood.
