The Transsiberian

Just happened to watch the sundance 2008 release "Transsiberian". The movie moves along the longest train route in the world, the transsiberian railway, from vladivostok in the east to the Moscow in the west. Much hyped to have some hitchcock touch, the film was worth a watch, esp. on a sleepless night. After all, I was used to the idea that snow(I am talking about real white snow, with all due love to my snow) is joy being in chennai, but this film gave me an idea, how cold and brutal a winter could be. Imagine being always in snow, clad with triple wound doubly knit sweaters, seeing faces as white as the snow itself, fighting off frostbite.... Chennai would be heaven even though the sun gets me tanned every summer :). Well, the story is about a young(hope so) couple whose marital life is on a bad patch, deciding to give a last push to make things better. So, they decide to go on a transiberian journey to Moscow,after their humanitarian misison in Beijing.

As you might have guessed, the story goes around the journey. The couple were joined by another couple, and a little KANK(Kabhi Alvida Na Kehana) going on for a while, except that the heroine kills the Italian seducer, when he tries to rape her luring her into an abandoned church. Then she learns about the Italian as Drug trafficker, who and his girlfriend were on pursuit by the corrupt police(Ben Kingsley). After that it's american guy, american girl escapade bravado from villains....
It is crap to compare this to Hitchcockish, though it has its own sharp turns. The movie keeps you always on the edge of the seat, even though you know what'd happen. This may be due to the location, ( a laid back lithuanian snow forest), which gives additional creepy touch to the cinematography(kudos to whoever did that). Some interesting dialogues by Ben Kingsley, who was not used completely, such a versatile actor...

"There are two kinds of people in Russia, one who fly up in private jets, another who go down in coffins"

"We have a saying in Russia: You can always go forward with a lie, but you can never go back."


p.s: This movie was released against the "The Dark Knight", may be that could be the reason why it didn't get through well.

rating: 7/10