thomas4cinema

Roy and Jessie are on their way from Beijing to Europe, and because they want the trip to be special, they get on the Transsiberian train. They meet another couple there, a Spanish guy who smuggels drugs in Matjoschkas and his girlfriend. They also meet some people who are working on the fringe between police and drug dealers, eagerly searching either the drugs or the money the Spaniard Carlos had stolen from them. In what’s half an accident, half self-defense after Carlos assaults Jessie, she kills him. Guilt-ridden, she continues the trip, and it turns out that leaving Carlos back creates more problems. The drug lords do not shy away from any means to find him and their money, including re-routing and isolating the train.
I never knew what it is about this train. If you are scared of flying (or of falling into deep waters with sharks in it, which has the same result – you don’t fly), then this is a reason I understand. But just for the fun of it hanging out for weeks in a compartment with strangers in a train that is not exactly luxurious? At least here there is some entertainment in the form of chases, murder, suspicion, torture, and Ben Kingsley who looks as if he is not exactly sure why he has to play the ruthless villain with the funny accent again. But he does, and that’s always good for some creepy moments. But the script is tumbling, it is unclear why people do or do not talk about what’s happening to them, and Americans being flabbergasted by all those things European around them is something that is hard to swallow anyway. I like Woody Harrelson, though, as he manages to appear so ordinary and ignorant and naïve that I would not have been surprised had he started whistling a tune while the train was crashing into another one.
A solid thriller, altogether, with not enough thrill but nice acting.