Russian police detective Ilya Grinko (Ben Kingsley) investigates a likely gangland murder for drugs in Vladivostok. Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer) are Christian missionaries taking the train from Beijing to Moscow. He befriends cabin mates Spanish Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and his girlfriend Abby (Kate Mara). Roy is trusting while Jessie has her suspicions. Carlos is transporting a collection of souvenir matryoshka dolls. After a stop, Jessie finds Roy missing from the train. Assuming he missed the train, she leaves at the next stop to wait for Roy. Carlos and Abby get off with her. The next day, Carlos takes Jessie to an abandoned church. He tries something which escalates into Jessie killing Carlos. She returns to the train and finds Roy with a new cabin mate in Grinko.
There's a train. There's an attempt at suspense. It's looking like a Hitchcock movie. However there are things that keep gnawing at me. First of all, I doubt anybody transports drugs from Beijing into Russia. It just makes no sense. It's tough enough to get drugs into China with the death penalty as your reward. Why would anybody keep transporting it around? Just sell it in China. I buy that drugs come into Vladivostok but why bring it into China just to go back into Russia. It's not a short cut anybody with drugs would ever take.
As for movie, it's not that suspenseful. The characters are more annoying than anything. I didn't particularly like Roy or Jessie. They are annoyingly naive. It's some kind of stereotype of Christian missionaries. I also don't really understand why Carlos is waving the dolls around. People just act strangely. Roy seems completely clueless. Carlos seems like such a clingy bad guy that I can't buy Jessie's flirtiness unless they give me a reason like Jessie and Roy have sex problems. In general, I have problems with these character doing what they do. As the story gets more and more twisty, I lose more and more interest. I never buy into these people and I don't care about their predicaments.
There's a train. There's an attempt at suspense. It's looking like a Hitchcock movie. However there are things that keep gnawing at me. First of all, I doubt anybody transports drugs from Beijing into Russia. It just makes no sense. It's tough enough to get drugs into China with the death penalty as your reward. Why would anybody keep transporting it around? Just sell it in China. I buy that drugs come into Vladivostok but why bring it into China just to go back into Russia. It's not a short cut anybody with drugs would ever take.
As for movie, it's not that suspenseful. The characters are more annoying than anything. I didn't particularly like Roy or Jessie. They are annoyingly naive. It's some kind of stereotype of Christian missionaries. I also don't really understand why Carlos is waving the dolls around. People just act strangely. Roy seems completely clueless. Carlos seems like such a clingy bad guy that I can't buy Jessie's flirtiness unless they give me a reason like Jessie and Roy have sex problems. In general, I have problems with these character doing what they do. As the story gets more and more twisty, I lose more and more interest. I never buy into these people and I don't care about their predicaments.