Post by Eddie Love on Oct 25, 2009 12:50:50 GMT -5
While the most over-employed, mis-used phrase in all movies (after Film Noir) is Hitchcokian, this dark thriller comes closer than some to earning the tag. It's about an American couple who travel to Moscow on the eponymous train-line after a stint as missionaries in China because the husband (Woody Harrelson) is a train geek. The atmosphere on the train is engagingly exotic yet vaguely sinister and the pair meet up with a young American woman and her Spanish traveling companion with whom they strike up a friendship, although the Spaniard seems overly interested in the American wife. The less you know about what comes next, the better -- although the Russian narcotics detective we met in the film's opening scenes played by Ben Kingsley reappears.
The picture is filled with stunning snowy exteriors and gritty Russian locales that provide the backdrop for our not-so innocents abroad. The middle third of the film seems to be what most attracts the filmmakers and provides plenty of gnawing tension and suspense. The climax that includes an almost action-movie set piece, feels undernourished by comparison, but the whole thing is neatly plotted.
What really holds the movie together is the superb performance by Emily Mortimer as the wife. I am a huge American accent snob, and I resent the notion that affecting them is a breeze for British actors. (I'm sorry, I've been an American my whole life and I've never met anyone who sounded like Dr. Gregory House. Yes, it's a wonderfully charismatic and enjoyable performance, but the accent? C'mon.) Here though, Mortimer's accent is very good and she perfectly conveys a character who may not have it as together as we (or she) might think. You watch her in moments of indecision and you don't know what she might do -- because you can tell that she herself doesn't know. Woody Harrelson is effective, but a little distracting as the husband. But, Sir Ben delivers as always.
This picture has no humor whatsoever, which should be a demerit when the Hitchcock mantel is being bandied around, but it took me by surprise and I'd recommend it.