By Aaron Hillis
By now, writer/director Brad Anderson ("Session 9") must be bored to death of people asking him about Christian Bale's monumental weight loss for "The Machinist," perhaps the most memorably disturbing image from his still-under-the-radar career. (Could this be the same Brad Anderson who once made quirky rom-coms like "Next Stop Wonderland" and "Happy Accidents"? Indeed, it is.) After taking on episodes of "The Wire" and "Masters of Horror," Anderson returns to features with the moody, diabolically suspenseful "Transsiberian," starring Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer as an American couple on a church-sponsored charity mission in China who soon face moral dilemmas and enigmatic strangers on the titular train to Russia. Of course ol' Hitch came up in my conversation with Anderson, but so did Dostoyevsky, hipster thrillers and the in-the-works adaptation he wishes he could've made. [Warning: Major spoilers ahead!]
Variety's review said "The long sidelined subgenre centered on mysterious...
By now, writer/director Brad Anderson ("Session 9") must be bored to death of people asking him about Christian Bale's monumental weight loss for "The Machinist," perhaps the most memorably disturbing image from his still-under-the-radar career. (Could this be the same Brad Anderson who once made quirky rom-coms like "Next Stop Wonderland" and "Happy Accidents"? Indeed, it is.) After taking on episodes of "The Wire" and "Masters of Horror," Anderson returns to features with the moody, diabolically suspenseful "Transsiberian," starring Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer as an American couple on a church-sponsored charity mission in China who soon face moral dilemmas and enigmatic strangers on the titular train to Russia. Of course ol' Hitch came up in my conversation with Anderson, but so did Dostoyevsky, hipster thrillers and the in-the-works adaptation he wishes he could've made. [Warning: Major spoilers ahead!]
Variety's review said "The long sidelined subgenre centered on mysterious...
- 7/17/2008
- by Aaron Hillis
- ifc.com
Director Brad Anderson on set of Transsiberian
Photo: First Look Studios Brad Anderson scored in 2004 with his indie film The Machinist. Now, when I say "scored" I don't mean the film that generated a mere $1 million at the box-office found its way into the hearts of millions, but it was a film that put Anderson on the map as it told a deeply engaging dark story and generated a reaction from its audience. Anderson showed talent as a director, which made me genuinely interested in his next film, Transsiberian, which touted a cast made up of Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Thomas Kretschmann and Ben Kingsley. That's some real talent and worthy of a once over. Depending on your level of anticipation and curiosity, this is a film that can generate several reactions. Folks can come away riveted as there are several twists to the narrative often giving viewers...
Photo: First Look Studios Brad Anderson scored in 2004 with his indie film The Machinist. Now, when I say "scored" I don't mean the film that generated a mere $1 million at the box-office found its way into the hearts of millions, but it was a film that put Anderson on the map as it told a deeply engaging dark story and generated a reaction from its audience. Anderson showed talent as a director, which made me genuinely interested in his next film, Transsiberian, which touted a cast made up of Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Thomas Kretschmann and Ben Kingsley. That's some real talent and worthy of a once over. Depending on your level of anticipation and curiosity, this is a film that can generate several reactions. Folks can come away riveted as there are several twists to the narrative often giving viewers...
- 7/17/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
First Look Studios has acquired Filmax Group's lackluster Transsiberian (review), starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Ben Kingsley, and plans a late summer domestic release. The film also stars Kate Mara and Eduardo Noriega. It's directed by Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist), who co-scripted with Will Conroy. The Sundance pic follows an American couple, played by Harrelson and Mortimer, in a chase of deception and murder on the Siberian train journey from China to Moscow.
- 2/27/2008
- bloody-disgusting.com
- #76. Transsiberian Director: Brad AndersonWriters: Will Conroy and Anderson Producers: Julio Fernández Distributor: Currently Seeking Distribution The Gist:Crime thriller revolves around an American couple (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway from China to Moscow. When they meet another couple (Mara and Noriega), the result is a train ride full of deception and murder. Ben Kingsley and Thomas Kretschmann will play Russian police officers pursuing the couples. Fact: Anderson last directed two episodes of The Wire. See It: This is yet another example of how the filmmaker is at ease in the thriller genres with a twist. I'm expecting The Machinist type results with superb perfs from this cast. Release Date/Status?: Sundance and Berlin film festival showcases will help find this film a domestic distributor - a late year release is probable. ...
- 1/29/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Jet travel being almost ubiquitous today, the thriller-mystery set aboard a train has almost disappeared from movie subgenres. Brad Anderson brings it back to robust life in Transsiberian, a vigorous, fast-paced tale that entwines plot with character and psychology set against an incredibly exotic backdrop. No train ride in the world lasts longer than the Transsiberian, which takes seven days to run from China and Mongolia to Russia. Director Anderson, who co-wrote the script with Will Conroy, plunks down four westerners on this train whose reputation since the fall of the USSR has gone from glamorous to shady and dangerous.
Transsiberian may do little to promote tourism aboard the famous train -- then again, it may well inspire thrill-seekers and adventurers to book passage. But the well-made movie certainly has boxoffice potential as dynamic as its storytelling. Adding to the attractions, Anderson has cagily cast against type in several roles including Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Kate Mara, plus Ben Kingsley is on hand to demonstrate once again that he is among the cinema's very best character actors.
Roy (Harrelson) and Jessie (Mortimer), an American married couple on a church mission in Peking, decide to return home via Moscow on the Transsiberian in the dead of winter. Roy is a bit of an overgrown Boy Scout, but he does not lack for a sense of adventure and has long been obsessed by trains. Jessie figures she has little choice even though has tried to leave behind an overly adventurous past that includes drugs, booze and promiscuous sex. There are issues between them, but for now only adventure lies ahead.
They have no idea. At the top of the movie, a murder victim is discovered. Russian detective Grinko (Kingsley) immediately sees a link with the drug trade and that train. He then hurries off to Moscow. No doubt will show up on the Transsiberian.
The movie does give viewers a chance to settle into the sheer exoticism of the Transsiberian before the thriller kicks in. As the movie tells it, the train is now the travel choice of aging pensioners, drug traffickers, corrupt officials, mobsters and brutal cops. Passengers swap vodka and dark tales to pass the time and get over the bad food.
Roy and Jessie find themselves sharing extremely cramped quarters with a young American Abby (Mara), who just spend two years teaching English in Japan, and her older Spanish boyfriend, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega). Everyone becomes very friendly, even sharing a few secrets. Only Roy seems oblivious to how Carlos looks at Jessie.
At one stop, the four get off to look around. Roy becomes so enamored of the old trains idling nearby he misses the train. Jessie gets off at the next station. Abby and Carlos offer to wait with her. Abby seems intent on making a mysterious day trip by herself. When Carlos and Jessie go on their own country excursion to a ruined church, Carlos comes on to Jessie. In defending herself, she kills him.
When Roy rejoins her, Jessie says nothing. The two continue on, and Abby is left behind to search for her missing companion.
Roy is now in the company of none other than Grinko, who helped translate for him as Roy frantically tried to book another train to join his wife. Grinko is simply enjoying the young couple's company until the subject of Abby and Carlos is raised. Then his ears prick up.
Soon everyone is convinced Abby and Carlos fit the profile of drug smugglers on the Transsiberian. Then Jessie is horrified to discover that Carlos May have slipped his contraband into her luggage before his untimely demise. It's funny, but a train is hard place to hide that much drugs. Try as she might, she can't get rid of the drugs, her guilt over killing Carlos or Grinko's growing suspicions.
OK, it's all a bit far-fetched, and a few coincidences are needed to bring the parties fatally together. But the story under Anderson's astute direction unfolds in such a logical fashion amid the chaos and looseness of this oddball train that you go with the exciting flow. More to the point, Anderson makes increasing tension and danger grow from his characters' personalities and behavior -- the naivete of Roy, the overwhelming guilt of Jessie and the conflicts of interest welling inside Grinko, a man who has never recovered from the death of a son -- and one suspects the Soviet Union.
Cinematographer Xavi Gimenez, shooting on locations in Lithuania, Spain and China, keeps things as dark as the frigid weather and always claustrophobic inside the train. As the train speeds westward through a frozen landscape, you get the impression civilization has been left further and further behind.
TRANSSIBERIAN
Filmax Group
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Brad Anderson
Co-screenwriter: Will Conroy
Producer: Julio Fernandez
Executive producer: Carlos Fernandez
Director of photography: Xavi Gimenez
Production designer: Alain Bainee
Music: Alfonso De
Costume designer: Thomas Olah
Editor: Jaume Marti
Cast: Roy: Woody Harrelson
Jessie: Emily Mortimer
Abby: Kate Mara
Carlos: Eduardo Noriega
Grinko: Ben Kingsley
Myassa: Thomas Kretschmann
Running time -- 111 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Jet travel being almost ubiquitous today, the thriller-mystery set aboard a train has almost disappeared from movie subgenres. Brad Anderson brings it back to robust life in Transsiberian, a vigorous, fast-paced tale that entwines plot with character and psychology set against an incredibly exotic backdrop. No train ride in the world lasts longer than the Transsiberian, which takes seven days to run from China and Mongolia to Russia. Director Anderson, who co-wrote the script with Will Conroy, plunks down four westerners on this train whose reputation since the fall of the USSR has gone from glamorous to shady and dangerous.
Transsiberian may do little to promote tourism aboard the famous train -- then again, it may well inspire thrill-seekers and adventurers to book passage. But the well-made movie certainly has boxoffice potential as dynamic as its storytelling. Adding to the attractions, Anderson has cagily cast against type in several roles including Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Kate Mara, plus Ben Kingsley is on hand to demonstrate once again that he is among the cinema's very best character actors.
Roy (Harrelson) and Jessie (Mortimer), an American married couple on a church mission in Peking, decide to return home via Moscow on the Transsiberian in the dead of winter. Roy is a bit of an overgrown Boy Scout, but he does not lack for a sense of adventure and has long been obsessed by trains. Jessie figures she has little choice even though has tried to leave behind an overly adventurous past that includes drugs, booze and promiscuous sex. There are issues between them, but for now only adventure lies ahead.
They have no idea. At the top of the movie, a murder victim is discovered. Russian detective Grinko (Kingsley) immediately sees a link with the drug trade and that train. He then hurries off to Moscow. No doubt will show up on the Transsiberian.
The movie does give viewers a chance to settle into the sheer exoticism of the Transsiberian before the thriller kicks in. As the movie tells it, the train is now the travel choice of aging pensioners, drug traffickers, corrupt officials, mobsters and brutal cops. Passengers swap vodka and dark tales to pass the time and get over the bad food.
Roy and Jessie find themselves sharing extremely cramped quarters with a young American Abby (Mara), who just spend two years teaching English in Japan, and her older Spanish boyfriend, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega). Everyone becomes very friendly, even sharing a few secrets. Only Roy seems oblivious to how Carlos looks at Jessie.
At one stop, the four get off to look around. Roy becomes so enamored of the old trains idling nearby he misses the train. Jessie gets off at the next station. Abby and Carlos offer to wait with her. Abby seems intent on making a mysterious day trip by herself. When Carlos and Jessie go on their own country excursion to a ruined church, Carlos comes on to Jessie. In defending herself, she kills him.
When Roy rejoins her, Jessie says nothing. The two continue on, and Abby is left behind to search for her missing companion.
Roy is now in the company of none other than Grinko, who helped translate for him as Roy frantically tried to book another train to join his wife. Grinko is simply enjoying the young couple's company until the subject of Abby and Carlos is raised. Then his ears prick up.
Soon everyone is convinced Abby and Carlos fit the profile of drug smugglers on the Transsiberian. Then Jessie is horrified to discover that Carlos May have slipped his contraband into her luggage before his untimely demise. It's funny, but a train is hard place to hide that much drugs. Try as she might, she can't get rid of the drugs, her guilt over killing Carlos or Grinko's growing suspicions.
OK, it's all a bit far-fetched, and a few coincidences are needed to bring the parties fatally together. But the story under Anderson's astute direction unfolds in such a logical fashion amid the chaos and looseness of this oddball train that you go with the exciting flow. More to the point, Anderson makes increasing tension and danger grow from his characters' personalities and behavior -- the naivete of Roy, the overwhelming guilt of Jessie and the conflicts of interest welling inside Grinko, a man who has never recovered from the death of a son -- and one suspects the Soviet Union.
Cinematographer Xavi Gimenez, shooting on locations in Lithuania, Spain and China, keeps things as dark as the frigid weather and always claustrophobic inside the train. As the train speeds westward through a frozen landscape, you get the impression civilization has been left further and further behind.
TRANSSIBERIAN
Filmax Group
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Brad Anderson
Co-screenwriter: Will Conroy
Producer: Julio Fernandez
Executive producer: Carlos Fernandez
Director of photography: Xavi Gimenez
Production designer: Alain Bainee
Music: Alfonso De
Costume designer: Thomas Olah
Editor: Jaume Marti
Cast: Roy: Woody Harrelson
Jessie: Emily Mortimer
Abby: Kate Mara
Carlos: Eduardo Noriega
Grinko: Ben Kingsley
Myassa: Thomas Kretschmann
Running time -- 111 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/20/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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