Transsiberian (2008) – 3.5/5

Choppy Hitchcockian suspense type film with a weird plot that is deeper and more involved than you’d expect but way too ridiculous and poorly written to take seriously.

The thing is all over the place, often relying on coincidence and over the top scenarios to forward the crazy multi-layered plot it so desperately tries to convince you is otherwise firmly grounded in reality. It’s as though the film wants the respectability of a serious suspense thriller and thinks stuffing itself full of wacky action set pieces and dumb, over the top scenarios are the perfect way to go about it. Granted most of the dumb ridiculous stuff doesn’t take place until the last half, and the first half is somewhat interesting at times, though, again, not that well written, but a decent beginning is no excuse to get even lazier with your plot.

The acting is also kind of all over the place. Emily Mortimer is fine, as is Kate Mara who is real pretty here, and gives arguably the best performance, “best” being used loosely in this case. Woody Harrelson, though, is miscast. He’s not bad, he’s just not very convincing as this supposed **SPOILERS** wimpy reserved type whose skittish nature helped reform Mortimer’s character’s “bad girl” persona into something dull and watered down. Mortimer herself never struck me as someone who used to have a “bad” side to her either, and, though she manages to pull it off for the most part, I never quite bought it completely. **END SPOILERS**

Overall, not a terrible film. Entertaining at times, but too ridiculous at others, especially in some of the choices Mortimer makes near the middle and end, and the crazy coincidences/scenarios that play out with **SPOILERS** Ben Kingsley’s character. **END SPOILERS** Some of it “just plain don’t make sense,” as they say, while most of it is just stupid. The script tries to do too much in too lazy a manner, and the end result is a big, occasionally interesting but mostly idiotic mess.